More than 4,000 people from the northern city of Mosul in Iraq, have fled to Syria since the beginning of May. The UN has said, it is expecting up to 50,000 people to leave the ISIL-held city and cross the border.
The UN’s refugee agency today said, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant armed group have stepped up executions of men and boys in Fallujah, the other major Iraqi city still in their hands.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi army launched an offensive today to dislodge ISIL from Fallujah, west of Baghdad. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall under ISIL control in January 2014.