Five ISIS fighters who tried to flee Fallujah have their TONGUES cut off in publi

Five ISIS militants had their tongues cut off by their own fighters after they tried to flee Fallujah amid a military operation to recapture the Iraqi city.

The terror group has led

a brutal and desperate crackdown on deserters after government forces launched a massive offensive on its Iraqi stronghold.

Sources inside the city said five of its members had their tongues hacked out after being sentenced by a sharia court.

Iraqi security forces, allied Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces and Sunni tribal fighters take combat positions outside Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq, in a major offensive to take back control of the city from ISIS

Shi'ite fighters prepare their weapons near the city of Fallujahas part of a major assault to retake the city

One insider told IraqiNews.com: 'ISIS committed this crime in public in front of its members and citizens.' 

Thousands of civilians are estimated to remain inside Fallujah, located about 40 miles west of Baghdad, which ISIS has held for over two years.

On Sunday, government forces launched a large-scale offensive, teaming up with paramilitary troops and backed by aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition.

Nearly 20 families have fled from Fallujah's outskirts, where sporadic clashes have been taking place, since the offensive started.

But Shakir al-Issawi, the head of the council in the nearby town of Amiriyat al-Fallujah, said no families managed to flee today as ISIS militants tightly controlled the city outlets.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid group working with refugees and the displaced in Iraq, reported that only 17 families had fled Fallujah since Sunday night.

'There is no information for civilians about safe exits,' said Becky Bakr Abdullah, an NRC spokeswoman.

'There is also the fear of being killed for attempting to flee,' Abdullah said, explaining that multiple families said IS is threatening residents with death if they attempt to flee.

Iraqi Federal police covered in dust arrive to join the forces surrounding Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad

The International Organisation for Migration put the number of newly displaced families at 125, about 750 individuals, in the past two days.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group made up mostly of Shiite militias, said the forces continued to dislodge ISIS militants from key areas in the town of Garma, east of Fallujah, which is considered the main supply line for the militants.

Karim Al-Nouri added that forces had secured three safe corridors for families to flee, but the militants blocked those outlets to prevent them from leaving.

Fallujah was the site of two bloody battles against U.S. forces in 2004. 

It is part of the so-called 'Islamic Caliphate' the militants declared in territories under their control in Iraq and neighboring Syria. 

ISIS still controls key areas in Iraq, including the second-largest northern city of Mosul.