Iraqi widows, mothers and girls face heightened risks in displaced camps
Fearing for the safety of her four children in battles between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants, Umm Rayyad left everything she once owned and last month fled her hometown of Khurbardan, in northern Iraq. The start of a military campaign to retake Iraq's second-largest city Mosul has seen the Iraqi army pushing westward […]Sofia Barbarani writes for Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Fearing for the safety of her four children in battles between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants, Umm Rayyad left everything she once owned and last month fled her hometown of Khurbardan, in northern Iraq.
The start of a military campaign to retake Iraq's second-largest city Mosul has seen the Iraqi army pushing westward towards the Tigris River. The northern city has been controlled by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, since June 2014.
Clashes between the two sides have caused a fresh wave of displacement with 2,000 civilians forced from their home since the latest escalation in violence on March 24.
