Families plead with Islamic State to leave bloody Mosul

 t is hard to appreciate how dreadful Mosul's old city has become.
Families are being torn apart here and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. They are being murdered for just trying to live.
On the edge of the old city a disused shop is an emergency room. Injured civilians targeted by Islamic State as they try to escape the fighting and the starvation are brought here.
The walking survivors trudge their way up the road to safety carrying what they can.
In the dilapidated shop doctors, foreign medics and volunteers struggle to deal with the influx of
injured people.

They are ferried here on the bonnets of humvees and in the backs of trucks. They are bundled inside. On beds the medics get to work. The floor is awash with blood.
The moaning and cries of pain of the injured are only drowned out by the screams of anguish from family members outside.
The most seriously wounded are put into ambulances to take them to proper hospitals.
Here in the chaos of the room there is no time for anyone but the living. Those who didn't survive lie where they died, wrapped in rugs and body bags. All around the work to save life and limb goes on.
The survivors are terribly traumatised. The news that loved ones died in their terrifying attempt to escape is overwhelming. A young man surrounded by bodies sits outside the shop, sobbing.to let him and his family go. He told them they were starving.
"I pleaded with them this morning to let us leave because we have families and children. They replied: 'You want to leave and go to the unbelievers and apostates?'