Isis gets more brutal
BAGHDAD New reports have emerged of public killings and other atrocities committed against Mosul residents by Islamic State militants, including dozens of civilians whose bulletriddled bodies were hung from telephone poles after they were accused of using cellphones to leak information to Iraqi security forces.
The United Nations human rights office said yesterday Isis fighters had killed some 70 civilians in Mosul this week, part of a litany of abuses to come to light in recent days, including torture, the sexual exploitation of women and girls, and the use of child soldiers, who were filmed executing civilians.
The revelations are the latest reports of Isis brutality as the group retreats into dense urban quarters of Iraq’s second-largest city, forcing the population to go with them as human shields.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said Isis shot and killed 40 people on Wednesday after accusing them of ‘‘treason and collaboration’’, saying they had communicated with Iraqi security forces by cellphone. The bodies, dressed in orange jumpsuits, were hung from telephone poles in Mosul.
A day later, the extremists reportedly shot to death 20 civilians at a military base. Their bodies were hung at traffic intersections in Mosul, with signs saying they ‘‘used cellphones to leak information’’.
A Mosul resident, reached by telephone, said crowds had been watching the killings in horror. One victim was a former police colonel.
As the Iraqi army advances, Isis militants have been rounding up thousands of people and killing those with suspected links to the security forces.
Soldiers last week discovered a mass grave in the town of Hamam al-Alil, 20 kilometres south of Mosul, containing some 100 bodies.
At the same time, the militants have gone door to door in villages south of Mosul, ordering hundreds of people to march at gunpoint into the city. Combat in Mosul’s dense urban areas is expected to be heavy, and the presence of civilians will slow the army’s advance as it seeks to avoid casualties.
Isis militants have boasted of the atrocities in grisly online photos and video. The UN has urged authorities to collect evidence of Isis abuses of civilians to use in eventually prosecuting the militants.
Iraqi troops are advancing from four fronts on Mosul, the last major Isis holdout in Iraq.
As Iraqi special forces battle in eastern neighbourhoods of the city, Kurdish peshmerga forces are holding a line north of the city, while Iraqi army and militarised police units approach from the south. Governmentsanctioned Shi’ite militias are guarding the western approaches.
In the formerly Isis-held town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, Kurdish commander General Hamid Effendi said his forces were working to secure the area but faced booby traps that were holding up the advance.
More than a thousand unexploded bombs were believed to be buried in Bashiqa, Effendi said. Over 100 Isis fighters had been killed in combat, he added, but wounded fighters could remain in defensive tunnels built by the militants.
Yesterday, teams went building by building into the night detonating explosives left behind in Bashiqa, which was deserted except for a few residents trickling in to check on their homes and businesses.
Among them was 60-year-old Khan Amir Mohammed, who discovered that his home had been turned into a mortar post by the militants, who dug seven tunnels on his family’s property before retreating.
Ammunition tubes and English-language instruction pamphlets for firing mortars littered the floor in one room. Another had been turned into a makeshift mosque, with lines taped to the floor for worshippers to line up to pray.
Down the road, Kurdish forces were detonating bombs left behind by the militants. First Sergeant Ayub Mustafa said his unit alone had disabled some 250 bombs, the vast majority of them homemade explosives.
‘‘Apparently they have a smart electrician with them. They’re well-made,’’ he said.
Special forces troops entered the Qadisiya neighbourhood yesterday, the 26th day of the campaign to retake Mosul, exchanging small arms and mortar fire with Isis positions and advancing slowly to avoid killing civilians and being surprised by suicide car bombers, said Brigadier General Haider Fadhil.
Regular army troops controlled 90 per cent of the Intisar neighbourhood, said one officer, REUTERS but progress had slowed because ‘‘the streets are too narrow for our tanks’’.
Meanwhile, the UN has cited new evidence that the militants have used chemical weapons, escalating fears that Isis will resort to chemical warfare to try to hold on to the city, still home to more than a million people.
Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said reports indicated that Isis had stockpiled large amounts of ammonia and sulphur and placed them near civilians. ‘‘We can only speculate how they intend to use this,’’ she said.
She also noted a video posted online by Isis showing four children, believed to be aged 10 to 14, gunning down four people accused of spying for Kurdish and Iraqi security forces. AP