UN says IS targets children to hold Mosul civilians hostage

FILE- In this May 18, 2017, file photo, a child sleeps on his mother's shoulder after a perilous journey on foot to flee heavy fighting in their neighborhood between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, at a processing center in west Mosul, Iraq. In a report Thursday, June 22, 2017, the United Nation children’s agency said they documented a number of cases of Islamic State group fighters killing the children of families trying to flee militant-held neighborhoods in Mosul. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File) FILE- In this May 18, 2017, file photo, a child sleeps on his mother's shoulder after a perilous journey on foot to flee heavy fighting in their neighborhood between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, at a processing center in west Mosul, Iraq. In a report Thursday, June 22, 2017, the United Nation children’s agency said they documented a number of cases of Islamic State group fighters killing the children of families trying to flee militant-held neighborhoods in Mosul. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

By Associated Press June 21, 2017 2 min read

BAGHDAD (AP) – Fighters for the Islamic State group are targeting children in Mosul to prevent civilians from fleeing the city as Iraqi forces push into the last stronghold held in Iraq by the militants there, the United Nations said Thursday.

The U.N. children’s agency said it has documented a number of cases in which IS fighters killed the children of families trying to escape from neighborhoods controlled by the militants.

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

Iraqi troops are slowly clearing the last pockets of IS fighters from Mosul’s old city in an operation launched earlier this week. But an estimated 100,000 civilians packed into the dense terrain have slowed progress.

UNICEF said 1,075 Iraqi children have been killed and 1,130 wounded since IS militants overran nearly a third of Iraq in 2014. In the past six months alone, violence in Iraq has killed 152 children and injured 255, it said. In addition, the agency said, more than 1 million children have had their educations put on hold by either militant rule or displacement.