Barbaric ISIS jihadis are gunning down fleeing children and women in bid to stop others attempting to escape, former fighter says

DESPERATE women and children trying to flee the war torn city of Mosul are being shot down by barbaric ISIS fighters.

Former Islamic State fighter Abu Ahmed says the shooting of innocent victims by the extremist fighters is a last ditch attempt to deter others from escaping areas still under its control.

Abu, who is now a prisoner of the Kurdish authorities, said: "People tried to flee, because of the conditions in Mosul, to Kurdistan or Baghdad but they would be blown up by IEDs and if they weren't they'd be shot at even if they were kids," he said.

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"The thing people care about the most is their children, the hardest thing for anybody to see is their child being hurt even if it's not with a weapon but IS are going to use guns on children."

The battle to recapture the northern Iraq city of Mosul continues to rage with the UN reporting tens of thousands of civilians from around the city are being used as human shields.

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UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said: "Isil's depraved cowardly strategy is to attempt to use the presence of civilian hostages to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations, effectively using tens of thousands of women, men and children as human shields."

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The militant group is also reported to have taken thousands of innocent civilians hostage and is carrying out mass executions as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to advance on their push to retake the city.

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But despite the destruction some people are celebrating as they taste freedom for the first time.

A shopkeeper in the city told said: "We are happy but we are also very scared - for the last two years I stayed in my house because I feared they would hurt or kill me as an unbeliever."