Hundreds of families are fleeing hunger and jihadist rule in the Iraqi city of Hawijah and surrounding areas, witnesses and officials said Sunday.

Many have died on the perilous journey to reach Iraqi security forces, which have moved closer to Hawijah following recent gains against the Islamic State group.

"These families walk for two days or more through the Hamreen mountains," Colonel Fattah al-Khafaji, the police chief in charge of the Hawijah region, told AFP.

The officer was speaking near Al-Fatha, where security forces say they receive and assist families that have fled jihadist-held villages every day.

Umm Ahmed, a 31-year-old mother, lost her husband and one of her five children on the way from Hawijah.

"We fled the injustice of Daesh (IS)," she said. "We were nearly dying, we had very scarce food and little fuel."

The haggard-looking woman, wearing several robes on top of each other to protect herself from the cold, said a roadside bomb went off as her family marched towards deliverance.

"It killed my husband and our child, whom he was carrying on his shoulders," said Umm Ahmed.

"After the explosion, I shouted from the top of a hill: 'Come IS, come and kill us'. But nobody came," she said, explaining that she carried her son's body the rest of the way but had to leave her husband's behind.

Hawijah, around 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of Baghdad, is one of the jihadists' strongholds but the noose is tightening around it, with Kurdish peshmerga forces holding positions north and east, and federal forces as well as tribal fighters inching closer from the south and west.

- Boys enlisted -

Most of the rescued civilians head to Al-Alam, a town north of Tikrit on the eastern bank of the Tigris which has become one of the main hubs in the Salaheddin province.

"We have received around 2,200 families over the past two months from Hawijah, Zawiyah and various neighbouring areas controlled by Daesh," mayor Laith Hamid al-Juburi said.

Witnesses and officials said the families need to pay IS about $400 per individual to leave. The men and teenagers are not allowed to at all.

A resident of IS-controlled Hawijah, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said dozens were detained during the past week.

He did not know the exact circumstances of their detention but said whoever tried to flee the area without paying faced death or captivity.

"The Islamic State has also made announcements on speakers lately demanding that all makes aged 12 join their ranks to fight," he said.

According to security officials, the squeeze on sources and revenue and the heavy casualties inflicted by air strikes are putting huge pressure on IS across Iraq.

They are also taking a toll on civilians, with dwindling supplies of basic goods and IS fighters increasingly fearful the population will turn against them.

Sheikh Hatem al-Assi, head of the anti-IS Sunni tribal fighters cooperating with the Iraqi security forces in the area, said the exodus was claiming many lives.

"Many families have fallen on the road -- under Daesh bullets or from roadside bomb explosions," he said.

The tribal leaders said he estimated that about 60 people had died attempting to flee in the past two months and around 10 been recaptured by IS.

Assi and other officials said a around 17,000 families -- or in the vicinity of 100,000 people -- still lived in Hawijah and the 350 villages around the city.

Iraq denies Erdogan claim of IS attack near Mosul
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 9, 2016 - Iraq on Saturday denied claims made by Ankara that its soldiers on a controversial base near the northern city of Mosul killed 18 jihadists after coming under attack.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself announced on television Friday that the Islamic State group had tried to infiltrate the base in the Bashiqa area.

He said Turkish troops there to train Iraqi forces repelled the attack, killing 18 IS members.

The Joint Operations Command in Baghdad however flatly denied any such thing had happened.

"It also denies any terrorist attack on Turkish forces by Daesh (IS) forces in the Bashiqa area," a statement said.

A colonel in the Kurdish peshmerga forces that control the area, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, also denied the Turkish base had come under attack.

He said IS had fired some mortar rounds in the area but not at the base specifically and that the response to that routine attack was handled by the peshmerga.

Iraq argues that Turkey deployed troops and hardware in Bashiqa without asking Baghdad in what was therefore a violation of national sovereignty.

The Mosul frontline is controlled on the anti-IS side by the peshmerga forces of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, with which Ankara has very close ties.

Turkey's military presence has become a bone of contention, with Baghdad accusing Ankara of using the pretext of training to increase its influence in northern Iraq.

The base near Bashiqa is an area controlled by the peshmerga but not part of the official borders of the autonomous Kurdish region.

Baghdad took the issue up with the UN Security Council and US President Barack Obama had to pressure Turkey to deescalate the diplomatic row.

Turkey pulled some troops out of the base last month but it is unclear how many remain.