Civilians used as human shields: UN
232 people shot dead in a single day in Mosul ahead of main battle
The Islamic State (IS) group has killed scores of people as it herds tens of thousands into Mosul for use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, the UN said Friday.
Thousands have fled in the other direction, prompting a warning of “massive displacement” when fighting inside the jihadists’ last urban stronghold begins.
The UN human rights office said IS had reportedly shot dead 232 people in a single day on Wednesday and killed another 24 the previous day.
Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said the execution-style killings came as IS pushed forward with a strategy of forcing people living outside Mosul into the city.
IS “has been forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes in some districts around Mosul,” Shamdasani said.
Those executed included civilians who have refused to comply with the relocation orders and those who previously worked for the government security services, she said.
The killings, which the UN rights office said have been “corroborated to the extent possible,” are just the latest in a long line of atrocities committed by the jihadists since they overran swathes of Iraq in 2014.
IS has carried out mass executions, bombed civilian targets including markets and mosques, and perpetrated a campaign of massacres, enslavement and rape targeting members of the Yazidi religious minority.
As Iraqi forces have closed in on Mosul from the north, east and south, growing numbers of civilians have fled IS-held areas and the impending fighting in territory the jihadists control.
The International Organization for Migration said that as of Thursday, 15,804 people had been displaced since the operation began on October 17, the vast majority in the Mosul region.
“We’ve seen ... quite a dramatic increase in the numbers in the last few days, and they are now going into the newly set up camps,” Karl Schembri, regional media adviser for the Norwe- gian Refugee Council, said.
“This is already worrying because they haven’t yet entered the city ... when that happens, it’s going to be quite massive displacement,” he said.
The potential for a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of civilians are forced into camps with winter looming is just one of a raft of issues that have complicated military planning for the recapture of Mosul.
Thousands of Kurdish peshmerga fighters are taking part in the operation alongside Iraqi government troops and Kurdish leaders have made clear that they will expect payback once it has been successfully completed.