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Islamic State atrocities reported around Mosul, says UN Islamic State atrocities reported around Mosul, says UN
(35 minutes later)
The UN human rights office says it has preliminary reports about scores of killings by Islamic State around Mosul in the past week, as well as information reinforcing the belief that fighters were holding people as human shields. Islamic State fighters have reportedly massacred scores of people around its Iraq stronghold of Mosul in the past week, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville has said, citing preliminary information from sources in the area.
The bodies of 70 civilians with bullet wounds were discovered by Iraqi security forces in Tuloul Naser village on 20 October, and 50 former police officers held outside Mosul city were reportedly killed on Sunday, a UN human rights spokesman told a regular UN briefing in Geneva. On Sunday, Isis reportedly killed 50 former police officers held in a building outside Mosul, and last Thursday Iraqi security forces discovered the bodies of 70 civilians in houses in Tuloul Naser village south of Mosul, Colville said.
Rupert Colville said the reports, from a variety of sources used in the past, were hard to verify, so they should be treated as preliminary and not definitive.
One report stated that in Safina village, about 30 miles south of Mosul, 15 civilians were killed and their bodies thrown into the river in an attempt to spread terror, and six men, apparently relatives of a tribal leader fighting against Isis, were tied to a vehicle and dragged around the village.One report stated that in Safina village, about 30 miles south of Mosul, 15 civilians were killed and their bodies thrown into the river in an attempt to spread terror, and six men, apparently relatives of a tribal leader fighting against Isis, were tied to a vehicle and dragged around the village.
Colville said there were also reports Isis fighters had shot dead three women and three girls and wounded four other children who were trailing behind during a forced relocation because one of the children had a disability. “The six men were also allegedly beaten with sticks and gun butts. It is not clear what happened to them subsequently,” he said.
A major operation to retake Isis’s urban redoubt in Iraq began last week. On Sunday Kurdish troops backed by foreign special forces including a Turkish contingent advanced on the strategic town of Bashiqa, pushing to within five miles of Mosul. Isis fighters had also reportedly shot dead three women and three girls and wounded four other children, allegedly because they were trailing behind during a forced relocation from Rufeila village.
“The victims were lagging behind because one of the children had a disability. She was apparently amongst those shot and killed,” Colville said.
The sources of the information included civilians and established sources in northern Iraq that the UN had used in the past.
“It’s a mix of sources, and obviously some of them we can’t even come close to identifying, or even the locations, for protection reasons, particularly for those in areas that are still held by Isil, and in other cases there’s a major battle [going on].”
Some reports came from Iraqi government sources but also needed verification, he said.
“We very much fear that these will not be the last such reports we receive of such barbaric acts by ISIL,” Colville said, adding that the UN human rights office was urging Iraqi government forces and their allies not to take revenge on civilians and to treat Isis fighters in accordance with the law.
The UN was also concerned about evictions of hundreds of displaced people in Kirkuk following a surprise Isis attack there, which Colville said could “significantly complicate the already alarming situation of mass displacement in the region”.
A major operation to retake Mosul, Isis’s urban redoubt in Iraq, began last week. On Sunday Kurdish troops backed by foreign special forces including a Turkish contingent advanced on the strategic town of Bashiqa, pushing to within five miles of Mosul.