13th September, 2016
The bomb, planted by the Islamic State (IS) militants, was detonated on a road taken by many civilians to flee the besieged town of Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The victims, a man, his sister, his wife and four sons, were killed early in the morning, when they fled their home in Shirqat to seek help from security forces, who have imposed siege on the town for several months, the source said.
According to latest report by Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and the Displaced, more than 15,000 families fled Shirqat and nearby villages due to the power blackouts, acute food shortages, scarce drinking water and medicine.
The liberation of the town, which is the last one still under the IS control in Salahudin province, is part of a major offensive to liberate the IS stronghold in Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh.
Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, has been under the IS control for more than two years, when the extremist group took control of parts of Iraq’s northern and western regions in June 2014.