UN:

ISIL Targets Children to Punish Parents in Mosul

Rasa - UN officials accused ISIL militants of using children as a "weapon of war" to deter families from fleeing violence. Iraqi-led forces have surrounded the militant group in its last bastion in Mosul.

News ID: 430513

Date: 22 June 2017 - 22:34

RNA - The UN Children's Fund on Thursday decried the targeted killing of children by the terror group as a means to punish families trapped in Mosul, DW reported.

"They are using children as a weapon of war to prevent people from fleeing," said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's Iraq representative. "This just highlights how indiscriminate and catastrophic this war is."

The ISIL rose to notoriety in 2014 when it captured large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, culminating in the occupation of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. In October, Iraqi-led forces launched a major operation to recapture the city.

Backed by a US-led coalition, Iraqi forces have managed to retake most of the city, except for the Old City center, considered the last district under the militant group's control.

ISIL is an al Qaeda splinter group with militant Sunni Islamist idealogy. It emerged in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group's goal is to create a rule, or "caliphate", across Iraq, Syria and beyond.

Humanitarian organizations have warned that more than 100,000 civilians, roughly half of them children, may be trapped inside the city and purposefully placed in extremely dangerous conditions.

At least 1,075 children have been killed and 1,130 injured since ISIL captured territory in Iraq in 2014, UNICEF said. It noted that more than 5 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

"Across Iraq, children continue to witness sheer horror and unimaginable violence," UNICEF said in a statement. "They have been killed, injured, abducted and forced to shoot and kill in one of the most brutal wars in recent history."

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