A father with a daughter in his arms, both screaming in fear, fleeing through the ruins of Mosul. The streets were instantly transformed into a battlefield for fighters of the Islamic State and Iraqi Special Forces, writes Reuters photographer Goran Tomašević.
The two and their neighbors, some wearing rubber sandals and some barefoot, flee an Islamic State counterattack in a part of Mosul, dodging gunfire as the extremists close in.
When they reached the special forces, the men were ordered to lift their shirts and prove they were not suicide bombers.
It became a common tactic for the extremists to use suicide bombers and the soldiers shot in the air to try to slow down the residents while shouting at them in Arabic.
A day earlier, Iraqi troops used bulldozers to make improvised barricades out of vehicles to protect residents from suicide attacks in the area.
Civilians have been displaced in large numbers in the last few days, while fighting in and around the last Islamic strongholds in Mosul rages, especially in residential areas where water, food and energy have been denied for months.
One father was completely beside himself in panic. It was obvious that he was not a member of the Islamic State because he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and holding a child. His face perfectly reflected the terror of war.
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