Monaly Najeeb, 22, was hiding under a bed in her Iraqi University dormitory, when she heard the noise of Isil fighters in the kitchen next door.

With her face turned to the wall, the civil engineering student hardly dare breathe, less the men discovered her lying there helplessly.

Moments before, Monaly and six other female students had wrapped themselves in blankets as protection from flying debris, and crawled under the row of beds where they usually slept in the city of Kirkuk. The girls all live together in a church run dormitory for displaced students, not dissimilar to a halls of residence.

They were under attack by over 70 Isil fighters, who stormed multiple neighbourhoods in the Kurdish-controlled city early last Friday morning. The men seized a hotel in the centre of town and set up sniper positions on rooftops.