TAHRIR, Mosul-- Heartbreaking images taken by Rudaw on Sunday moments after a mother of two children loses her husband in a mortar attack shows the real victims of the war in Mosul with no immediate end in sight.
"We were sitting in the backyard of our home when something exploded next to us," the woman says before bursting into tears, standing in front of the covered body of her husband.
Her two sons, aged around 5 and 6, seem to be moved by the reaction of their mother rather than the tragic loss of the family, which they appear not to have grasped fully.
The so far motionless boys suddenly burst out crying as their sobbing mother tries to tell the horrific story to Rudaw reporter Ranja Jamal.
The family had fled their home in Tahrir neighborhood south of Mosul city where Iraqi Special Forces try to push back resilient ISIS gunmen.
Army sources told Rudaw on Sunday that the militants frequently and indiscriminately shell the liberated areas in the city after their retreat.
Several districts in the southern and eastern outskirts of the city have been retaken from the militants over the past week with the army now concentrating its offensive on more populated areas close to the central parts of Iraq's second largest city.
Rudaw met many families with wounded members who had abandoned their homes on foot on Sunday trying to reach safer areas south of the city.
"I think it was the splinters of a mortar bomb that exploded near our home," says an elderly woman when asked about the apparent wounds on the back of her son fleeing with dozens of other families from Tahrir district.
"We were sitting in the backyard of our home when something exploded next to us," the woman says before bursting into tears, standing in front of the covered body of her husband.
Her two sons, aged around 5 and 6, seem to be moved by the reaction of their mother rather than the tragic loss of the family, which they appear not to have grasped fully.
The so far motionless boys suddenly burst out crying as their sobbing mother tries to tell the horrific story to Rudaw reporter Ranja Jamal.
The family had fled their home in Tahrir neighborhood south of Mosul city where Iraqi Special Forces try to push back resilient ISIS gunmen.
Army sources told Rudaw on Sunday that the militants frequently and indiscriminately shell the liberated areas in the city after their retreat.
Several districts in the southern and eastern outskirts of the city have been retaken from the militants over the past week with the army now concentrating its offensive on more populated areas close to the central parts of Iraq's second largest city.
Rudaw met many families with wounded members who had abandoned their homes on foot on Sunday trying to reach safer areas south of the city.
"I think it was the splinters of a mortar bomb that exploded near our home," says an elderly woman when asked about the apparent wounds on the back of her son fleeing with dozens of other families from Tahrir district.
Kurdish aid workers announced Sunday that the nearby Khazir camp will extend the reception hours for its medical treatment centers to 24 hours, a day after the arrival of many injured refugees and others suffering from fatigue and malnourish.
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