美国国家公共电台 NPR As Iraqi Forces Encircle Mosul, ISIS Unleashes New Level Of Brutality On Civilians

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People who have recently fled the Iraqi city of Mosul are sharing stories that reveal just how dangerous life has gotten there. Some 300,000 people are trapped in areas of the city held by ISIS and now under siege by Iraqi security forces. As ISIS loses the fight, it has become a more violent ruler. NPR's Jane Arraf reports.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE 1: This is an abandoned gas station about 10 miles from the frontlines. It's been turned into kind of a holding center for civilians 2 being taken from Mosul after their neighborhoods have just been liberated 3. About 2,000 people have managed to flee so far today, and they're telling stories of increasingly brutal 4 tactics by ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken).

ARRAF: Women and young children evacuated 5 from Mosul are sent straight to camps for the displaced, several thousand every day. The men are brought here in military trucks to be screened for ties to ISIS. After living through months of fighting, they say ISIS has become increasingly violent.

OMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

ARRAF: Omar says he watched from a window as ISIS fighters intercepted 6 families who had run out of food, trying to escape to army-held territory.

OMAR: (Through interpreter) God strike me down if I'm lying. They shot seven people in the head, and then they took the people's cars and left.

ARRAF: No one wants their last name used because they're afraid of ISIS. Omar says female ISIS members gathered the women to search them for gold and money. ISIS beats the men, but for women trying to escape, there's a special punishment.

OMAR: (Through interpreter) There was a woman who was searching them, and the same woman was biting them. I swear to God she was biting them on their arms.

ARRAF: Omar says his father died three days before after being wounded in a mortar 7 strike. He says ISIS doctors refuse to try to save him because he wasn't one of them. Another man, Abdul Wahab, worked at Mosul University until ISIS closed it. He says most people now have run out of food.

ABDUL WAHAB: I eat today tomato paste mixed with water and salt. Sometimes we didn't eat.

ARRAF: And Jasim Muthana says when people did have food, ISIS began confiscating 8 it as Iraqi security forces closed in.

JASIM MUTHANA: (Through interpreter) I had seven bags of rice. They took four. I had two bags of sugar. They took one. I had two tanks of water, and they took one. Their excuse was it was for the Muslim brothers. They have no relation with Islam.

ARRAF: Ali, a high school teacher, says ISIS fighters took over a room in his house while his family stayed in the basement. He shows us photos of rocket-propelled grenades they're restoring there.

ALI: (Through interpreter) They burned my car because I wouldn't give it to them. I told them it doesn't work, so they burned it.

ARRAF: There's still more than 30,000 people left in the city. As well as being victimized by ISIS, they are also dying in mortar attacks and airstrikes.

Mahmoud, an engineer, says an airstrike targeted ISIS fighters using a house next door this week, killing 9 his neighbors.

MAHMOUD: Man and his wife and his mother and four daughters and his niece. Sometimes I taught her English. This makes me cry.

ARRAF: He says they couldn't even bury them. The youngest girl was so small he thought her body was a doll.

MAHMOUD: We have disaster between ISIS and the Iraqi army. We're in the middle.

ARRAF: For ISIS, Mosul is a fight to the death. They seem intent on taking civilians with them.

Jane Arraf, NPR News, near Mosul, Iraq.

(SOUNDBITE OF THOM SONNY GREEN'S "VIENNA")