Iraq News
Terrorism

ISIL executes hundreds while Iraqi forces free 1,000 captives near Mosul

AFP/Diyaruna

Newly displaced Iraqi children, who fled the violence in the northern city of Mosul, stand at the entrance of a tent upon their arrival at al-Khazar camp on October 27, 2016 in the village of Hasan Sham, some 40 kilometres east of Erbil [Safin Hamed/AFP]

Newly displaced Iraqi children, who fled the violence in the northern city of Mosul, stand at the entrance of a tent upon their arrival at al-Khazar camp on October 27, 2016 in the village of Hasan Sham, some 40 kilometres east of Erbil [Safin Hamed/AFP]

The "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) has killed scores of people as it herds tens of thousands into Mosul for use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, AFP reported Friday (October 28th).

The UN human rights office said ISIL had reportedly shot dead 232 people in a single day on Wednesday and killed another 24 the previous day.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the execution-style killings came as ISIL pushed forward with a strategy of forcing people living outside Mosul into the city.

ISIL "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 .

On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence announced that Iraqi forces have freed more than 1,000 people who were held captive by ISIL near Mosul.

"Joint Iraqi forces have freed 1,098 civilians, including many women and children, whom ISIL was detaining," Ninawa operations commander Nejim Edin Karim al-Jubury said in a statement.

"They come from 198 families in Bartella , Bashiqa, Batanaya, al-Khazer and Khazna," he said, adding that they were transferred to safe areas where they are being provided humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration said that as of Thursday, 15,804 people had been displaced since the operation began on October 17th, the vast majority in the Mosul region.

"We have 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 Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.

The number of areas on the outskirts of Mosul that have so far been liberated from ISIL has reached 90 villages and towns, according to the Joint Iraqi Operations Command.

Around 800 ISIL elements have been killed , hundreds have been wounded, many of the group’s assets and weapons have been destroyed and 23 terrorists have been arrested, the command said.

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