More than five million children are in urgent need of help in Iraq, as “one of the most brutal wars in recent history” with the Daesh continues, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement on Thursday.

“Across Iraq, children continue to witness sheer horror and unimaginable violence,” the UNICEF said in the statement.

“They have been killed, injured, abducted and forced to shoot and kill in one of the most brutal wars in recent history.”

UNICEF reported that children in Mosul were being deliberately targeted and killed by Daesh to punish families and prevent them from fleeing.

According to estimates of international organisations, more than 100,000 civilians, half of them children, are trapped in extremely dangerous conditions in the centre of the Old City, the last area still under the control of Daesh in Mosul.

More than 1,000 children have been killed and more than 1,100 wounded since 2014, when Daesh controlled large swathes of Iraq, the statement continued, adding that more than 4,650 children have been separated from their families.