عراق میں داعش کے مقبوضہ علاقوں سے شہریوں کی اندرونِ ملک نقل مکانی جاری ہے۔ بےشمارعراقی شہری داعش جنگجووں سے چھپتے چھپاتے قریبی علاقوں تک پہنچنے میں کامیاب ہوئے ہیں ۔
داعش کو ترک کرنے کی سزا موت ہے لیکن پهر بهی ہر ہفتے سنکڑوں افراد مخمور نامی شہر کی طرف نقل مکانی کا خطره مول لے رہے ہیں۔
داعش کو ترک کرنے کی سزا موت ہے لیکن پهر بهی ہر ہفتے سنکڑوں افراد مخمور نامی شہر کی طرف نقل مکانی کا خطره مول لے رہے ہیں۔
Civilians flee ISIL-held territory in Iraq
Makhmour, Iraq - Omar, 29, slowly hobbles his way through a small courtyard, where dozens of people, including women and children, finish a meal of rice and beans.
All of them recently escaped territory held by fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) by crossing into Iraq's Kurdish region. They are now living in a temporary transit camp in the town of Makhmour, an hour south of Erbil.
"I fell into a trench; it was three metres deep," Omar, who did not provide a last name, told Al Jazeera, recalling his night-time escape from Mosul, east across the Tigris river to Makhmour.
Abandoning ISIL is punishable by death, but each week, hundreds of people have been taking the risk to cross into Makhmour, said Peshmerga Brigadier Mehdi Younes.
"They began coming a year ago, but a month ago, more started arriving," Younes told Al Jazeera. "[In early March], 300 people arrived in one night - women,children and men."
Civilians who remain inISIL-held territory are also facing increasing pressure to join the group, Omar said.
"On Fridays, they ask people to take up arms and fight. If you don't obey, they will force you to fight," said Omar, who was ultimately planning to relocate to Baghdad.
Sahar, a married mother of two from a small town near Hawija, lamented that only ISIL's staunch supporters are able to lead a comfortable life in territory that the group controls. She fled to the Makhmour area early last month.
Ayad, a 35-year-old from ISIL-held Hawija who spoke to Al Jazeera under a pseudonym, relocated to Makhmour in early Marchafter walking for 13 hours with his wife and children to escape their crippling financial hardship.
"I was unemployed for six months," said Ayad, noting he lost his cafe business after ISIL demanded taxes that he could not afford. "We were hoping that someone would come and rescue us... Some people have started eating shrubs [because there is no money for food].
Some residents who can afford it have paid hundreds of dollars to smugglers to be relocated from ISIL-held territory - includingAdila, a 39-year-old electrical engineer who spoke to Al Jazeera under a pseudonym.
Civilians fleeing ISIL-held territory often travel with rusty Kalashnikovs for protection, relinquishing the weapons to the Peshmerga once they reach Kurdish territory, Younes said. Kurdish security forces are tasked with questioning new arrivals to ensure they do not pose a threat.
Today, the displaced people from the Juhaish tribe live on a barren patch of land on the eastern side of the Sinjar Mountains, surviving on dirty water and scraps of food donated by sympathetic Peshmerga fighters.
"We have been without bread for over a week We are completely isolated from the world," Mahmoud Saleh, one of the stranded people, told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview in early March.
Five in the group have died so far, he said - including a woman and her newborn during childbirth. Skin diseases and malnutrition have also become common, Saleh added.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/civilians-flee-isil-held-territory-iraq-160401120459813.html
