UN receives reports of IS atrocities as Iraqi forces close on Mosul

UN human rights staff have received reports of atrocities being committed by Islamic State (IS) militants as Iraqi government forces close in on Mosul.

The allegations – which remain “preliminary” – have come from a range of civilian and government sources, who cannot be named for security reasons, said UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville.

In one case, three women and three children were allegedly shot dead after trailing behind while being forced to march from one village to another and 15 civilians were reportedly killed and their bodies thrown into a river in an attempt to spread terror.

The reports came as Iraqi forces battled IS fighters for a third day yesterday in a remote western town far from the Mosul offensive, but the Usled coalition insists the militants have not succeeded in diverting resources from the fight to retake Iraq’s second largest city.

The assault in Rutba, hundreds of miles to the south of Mosul in the western Anbar province, is the latest in a series of what US officials are calling “spoiler attacks”, aimed at stretching Iraqi forces and sowing fear far from Mosul’s front lines.

The White House envoy to the coalition battling IS insisted the militants’ strategy was failing, saying there had been “no diversion whatsoever” of forces taking part in the Mosul operation, which is expected to take weeks, if not months.

“Iraqi security forces, the local people of Rutba, are taking back their town. So this was expected, it’s planned for, and we can expect more of it,” Brett Mcgurk told reporters at a Baghdad press conference.

IS launched a complex attack on Rutba on Sunday, almost a week into the operation in Mosul, and yesterday Iraq’s prime minister acknowledged that they had briefly seized the local government headquarters.

But he said Iraqi security forces drove them out “within hours” and had regained control of the town.

Last week the group launched a similar assault in and around the northern city of Kirkuk, some 100 miles south-east of Mosul, igniting gun battles that lasted two days and killed at least 80 people.

Mr Mcgurk downplayed the attacks, which he said were carried out by “small, isolated teams” and were “easily defeatable”.

But he acknowledged that there was still a “small Daesh presence” in two Rutba neighbourhoods.

The Iraqi military has insist throughout the Rutba assault that the situation is under control. 0 Iraqi families, displaced by the ongoing operation by coalition forces against IS to retake the city of Mosul, gather near Qayyarah