Mosul parents sedate children with drugs, fearing discovery by Islamic State: aid groups
Terrified Iraqi families fleeing fierce fighting in Mosul are drugging their children with sedatives or taping their mouths shut to prevent their cries alerting Islamic State militants as they try to escape, aid workers say. Hala Jaber of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said men caught trying to leave would be shot while women […]Emma Batha writes for Reuters:
Terrified Iraqi families fleeing fierce fighting in Mosul are drugging their children with sedatives or taping their mouths shut to prevent their cries alerting Islamic State militants as they try to escape, aid workers say.
Hala Jaber of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said men caught trying to leave would be shot while women were sometimes tied up and left outside in the cold as a warning. Militants are also using civilians as human shields.
"Families often leave at night and in the early hours of the morning and have to walk with their children. The kids get tired and if they cry it's very difficult," Jaber told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Erbil, east of Mosul.
