Islamic State shoot, kill hundreds in Mosul

Fleeing civilians gunned down near Pepsi factory in Shifa

GENEVA — Islamic State fighters shot and killed hundreds of residents in the Iraqi city of Mosul in the past two weeks, the United Nations said Thursday, describing an increasingly desperate drive by the jihadis to prevent civilians from fleeing.

Iraqi forces, backed by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition, have made advances into the city, and IS has responded in brutal fashion to halt the flight of civilians they want to use as human shields, the United Nations said.

The deadliest attack came last Thursday, when at least 163 civilians, including women and children, were killed near a Pepsi factory as they headed out of the Shifa neighborhood of Mosul, the U.N.'s human rights office in Geneva said.

“They were gunned down as they were fleeing,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the human rights office, which reported that, as of two days ago, the bodies of the victims were still lying in the streets.

An estimated 200,000 civilians are still trapped in desperate conditions in the old city of Mosul, targeted by jihadis and suffering heavy casualties from coalition bombing and artillery fire.

Iraqi forces had been advising Mosul residents to stay in their houses because of the street-by-street fighting and aerial bombing, but government aircraft have dropped leaflets in recent days urging residents of the old city to flee.

The United Nations reported that IS had shot and killed at least 231 civilians in the past two weeks, but Ms. Shamdasani said that many other people were missing and that the actual death toll was almost certainly higher.

Fighters killed 27 civilians in the Shifa area last month. Last Saturday, they shot 41 more in the same neighborhood as they attempted to reach positions held by advancing Iraqi forces, Ms. Shamdasani said.

Since Iraqi forces opened their campaign to retake western Mosul more than three months ago, IS has herded thousands of civilians into locations near the fighters’ positions to form a human shield.

The militants have also positioned snipers on rooftops to shoot residents who attempt to flee, along with other steps to prevent their escape.

Civilians who have managed to get out told of fighters killing men who were planning to leave, as well as shooting fugitives fleeing through the streets, Amnesty International reported Thursday.

Ms. Shamdasani said that IS “is getting increasingly desperate and increasingly overwhelmed by Iraqi forces, and their response to this is to up the cost of trying to flee.”

In another episode at the end of May, IS fighters locked nine civilians in a basement of a hospital. As government forces neared the hospital, the militants killed the civilians and then set fire to the building, Ms. Shamdasani said.

The mounting toll from Iraqi and coalition airstrikes prompted human rights organizations Thursday to call on those forces to make greater efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and to halt the use of heavy weapons and munitions in densely populated areas.

The United Nations said it was investigating reports that airstrikes on IS positions in the Zanjilly neighborhood of Mosul had killed as many as 80 civilians.