UN reports fresh IS killings

More than 230 civilians killed trying to flee Mosul

GENEVA, June 8, (Agencies): The UN rights office said Thursday it has credible reports that the Islamic State group has killed more than 230 civilians trying to flee Iraq’s western Mosul since May 26.

Between 50 to 80 more civilians were reportedly killed in a May 31 air strike on the IS-controlled Mosul neighbourhood of Zanjilly, said a statement from the office of United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Zeid had on Tuesday accused the jihadists of killing 163 civilians on June 1 in Mosul’s al-Shifa neighbourhood.

Thursday’s statement detailed two new allegations, including a May 26 incident where IS reportedly shot dead 27 people trying to escape al-Shifa, including five children.

On June 3, the group allegedly killed another 41 civilians in the same neighbourhood as they ran towards Iraqi troops, according to the rights office.

“Shooting children as they try to run to safety with their families there are no words of condemnation strong enough for such despicable acts”, Zeid said.

Targeting civilians “who are not directly taking part in hostilities, are war crimes,” the statement added.

IS seized Mosul in 2014, and the operation that began last October to retake the city has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Iraqi forces have retaken all but a handful of areas around the Old City in western Mosul, but the jihadists are fighting in densely populated areas, and have used civilians as human shields at various points in the battle.

Several reports in recent weeks, including Pentagon investigations, have found that civilians have repeatedly been killed by air strikes from the anti-IS coalition supporting Iraqi troops.

Zeid again urged the coalition “to ensure that their operations comply fully with international humanitarian law and that all possible measures are taken to avoid the loss of civilian lives,” reiterating a plea he has made throughout the battle for Mosul. The choice of weapons by the Iraqi security forces and its allies from the US-led coalition is endangering the lives of civilians in Mosul, rights groups said on Thursday.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a number of other rights groups issued a joint statement warning that some air strikes and unguided munitions used against the Islamic State group in the northern Iraqi city were inappropriate.

The statement listed recent occurrences of civilian deaths as a result of explosive weapons being used in anti-jihadist operations in Mosul, and urged all sides of the conflict to spare the estimated 200,000 people still stuck in the IS-held Old City.

“Iraqi and coalition forces should recognise that in the crowded Old City, using explosive weapons with wide area effects puts civilians at excessive risk,” HRW’s Middle East director Lamah Fakih said.

Bombs

The statement said that large airdropped bombs as well as mortar rounds, unguided artillery rockets and improvised rocket-assisted munitions used in Mosul are “inaccurate and can be unlawfully indiscriminate if used in heavily populated areas”.

The office of United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement on Thursday that 50 to 80 civilians were killed in an air strike on an IS-controlled Mosul neighbourhood on May 31.

In March, at least 105 civilians were killed when a US aircraft carried out a strike on a building in the Mosul al-Jadida area that triggered IS explosives, an inquiry found.

The bomb used was a GBU-38, a munition that weighs 500 pounds (225 kilos).

The statement said the use of air-dropped bombs weighing 500 pounds and up in densely populated areas may violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits “disproportionate military attacks”.

The high civilian casualties in the Mosul battle are mostly a result of the jihadists’ human shield tactic, which consists of hindering anti-IS operations by preventing the population from fleeing and sheltering in its midst.

The jihadists have on several occasions killed civilians who were attempting to flee or were even just suspected of planning to do so.

After days of shelling by Iraqi forces, some 200 residents decided to take their chances and flee from one of the last pockets of Mosul controlled by the Islamic State group. They made it as far as a nearby hospital before militant snipers opened fire from the roof, mowing them down by the dozens.

Their harrowing flight, recounted by survivors, illustrates the dangers that residents of Iraq’s second largest city have faced throughout months of heavy fighting as Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, struggle to drive the militants out.

Many have found themselves caught in the crossfire, with Iraqi artillery and coalition airstrikes on one side, and militants determined to use them as human shields or punish them for leaving on the other.

Riyadh Abdullah, 21, said he and his family, along with about 200 neighbors, had decided to leave their homes last Thursday after days of heavy shelling. As they neared the hospital, gunmen fired down on them, shooting him in the leg and hitting several others. Iraqi troops nearby then opened fire at the militants.

“There were bullets falling on us like rain,” he said from a hospital bed in the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil.

He remained on the ground, bleeding, for a day and a night. He eventually found a mobile phone in the handbag of a woman who had been killed nearby and called his uncle, who came and dragged him to safety.

He was luckier than most. The road where the civilians were ambushed was still well within range of the militants, hindering rescue efforts.