Islamic State militants have become increasingly desperate in the face of heavy airstrikes on their Syrian bastion Raqqa, passing themselves off as civilians to escape detection and killing anyone who tries to flee, witnesses said.
At a camp for the displaced in the village of Ain Issa north of the city, people who arrived on Wednesday also said the airstrikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces had inflicted widespread destruction as the battle intensified.
United Nations war crimes investigators said the air campaign had killed at least 300 civilians in the city, captured by Islamic State in 2014 in the chaos of Syria's civil war.