AL-ALAM, Iraq — With the operation to liberate Mosul ongoing, dozens of families are fleeing the battlefield and are being killed simply because they are caught in the crossfire. Civilians fleeing Islamic State-held Hawija, 120 kilometers (74 miles) south of Mosul, toward al-Alam area were killed Nov. 5, and this has now become a daily tragedy.

Al-Alam is a Sunni town with strong tribal ties that has long collaborated with the predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in the fight against IS. It is a predominantly agricultural town with an estimated 60,000 inhabitants, according to a local police officer, and is located just over 10 kilometers (6 miles) across the Tigris River from former President Saddam Hussein’s native city of Tikrit.

The Camp Speicher military base is also nearby, where IS killed as many as 1,700 soldiers in June 2014, including many young Shiite recruits. Al-Alam residents managed to save many soldiers from the base by secretly ferrying them across the river, hiding them in their homes and later taking them furtively to Kirkuk or other cities.

A monument at a roundabout near the entrance to the town commemorates a mass execution of local men from the dominant Jabouri tribe at the hands of IS, depicting several men dressed in orange jumpsuits just before they were killed. The roundabout has been renamed the Knights of al-Alam Square in memory of the victims.