A Fleeing Family Finds Iraqi Troops, and a Reprieve From ISIS<br />The Iraqi soldiers in our group, which also included a small unit of American advisers, gave one of the family<br />members a cigarette, as the militants took over the area and forbade smoking nearly three years ago.<br />Photographs and Text by RUKMINI CALLIMACHIMARCH 1, 2017<br />From a ridge overlooking a village in western Mosul, the Iraqi troops spotted the family fleeing the Islamic State.<br />Ms. Abbas pleaded with the troops, saying their relatives were in three white cars, two silver ones and a blue one.<br />As members of the family were catching their breath, a ripple of panic suddenly spread through<br />the group: The troops spotted five cars speeding toward us and began firing warning shots.<br />The pregnant woman, who was still hooked up to the drip, and the grandmother, Ms. Abbas, began screaming<br />that the people coming up the hill were their relatives.<br />The Iraqi Army has suffered numerous casualties from car bombs detonated by Islamic State militants, and the soldiers were visibly on edge.<br />The family included three women — one of them pregnant — two men, several children and a dog.<br />When the terrorist group began lobbing mortars in their direction, the Iraqi troops asked the families to move.
