It's probably the worst kind of Catch-22 situation that can ever be, and its unfolding in Iraq: Try to flee areas still held by the Islamic State group — also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — and you are executed if caught. And even if you succeed in escaping the terrorists, there is no escaping the trauma they have inflicted.
Escapees shot at, killed
While ISIS members themselves have been known to attempt escapes, those in the upper echelons of the terrorist outfit have reportedly got safe passage, while foot-soldiers have often been executed to quell mutinies. Those militants that have escaped their own group's persecution have often been caught by the Iraqi forces while trying to flee dressed as women.
Civilians, however, have had no such treatment, and the latest incident reinforces that. Mosul mayor Hussein Hajem was quoted by Iraqi News as telling Sputnik News that several civilians started to flee ISIS-held areas in eastern Mosul. They hoisted white flags and ran towards troops belonging to and allied with the Iraqi government, but were "met with shooting by militants using light weapons." Three people were reportedly killed in the firing: A woman, her child and an old man.
Trauma resurfaces
Even those civilians who have fled ISIS can't seem to be able to escape the trauma the terrorists inflicted on them. According to an agency report: "The militants have employed extreme violence to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law in territories they seized in 2014, whipping people for smoking, cutting off hands for stealing, stoning women for adultery, and throwing men off of buildings for homosexuality."
Often, civilians have also been taken hostage by ISIS to use as human shields when the militants retreat from a former stronghold. They have also trafficked children and organs from civilians for money. Even the family members of ISIS terrorists have not been spared: In a now-infamous incident, a militant killed his father because the latter verbally abused ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
