New reports emerged Friday of public killings and other
atrocities committed against Mosul residents by Islamic State
(ISIS) militants, including dozens of civilians whose
bullet-riddled 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 ISIS fighters killed
some 70 civilians in Mosul this week, part of a litany of abuses to
come to light in recent days, including torture, sexual
exploitation of women and girls, and 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 Iraqi's second-largest
city, forcing the population to go with them as human shields.
In its report, the U.N. human rights office in Geneva said ISIS
shot and killed 40 people on Tuesday after accusing them of
"treason and collaboration," saying they communicated with Iraqi
security forces by cellphone. The bodies, dressed in orange
jumpsuits, were hung from electrical 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 have been
watching the killings in horror. One victim was a former police
colonel, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear
for his safety.
The violence is part of a disturbing pattern. As the 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, 12 miles 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 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 United Nations has urged authorities to
collect evidence of ISIS abuses of civilians to use in eventually
prosecuting the militants in tribunals.
Iraqi troops are advancing from four fronts on Mosul, the last
major ISIS holdout in Iraq. As Iraqi special forces battle in
eastern neighborhoods of the city, Kurdish Peshmerga forces are
holding a line north of the city, while Iraqi army and militarized
police units approach from the south. Government-sanctioned Shiite
militias are guarding western approaches.
In the formerly ISIS-held town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul,
Kurdish commander Gen. 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 are believed buried in
Bashiqa, Effendi said. Over 100 ISIS fighters have been killed in
combat, he added, but wounded fighters likely remain in defensive
tunnels built by the militants.
On Friday, 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 3 1/2-acre property before
retreating.
Ammunition tubes and English-language instruction pamphlets for
launching 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.
A nearby shop where Mohammed sold animal feed had collapsed from
an apparent airstrike.
"What can I say? I feel powerless," he said, surveying the
destruction.
Down the road, Kurdish forces were detonating bombs left behind
by the militants. First Sgt. Ayub Mustafa said his unit alone had
disabled some 250 bombs, the vast majority homemade explosives.
"Apparently they have a smart electrician with them. They're
well-made," he said.
Special forces troops entered the Qadisiya neighborhood on
Friday, 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 Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil.
Regular army troops control 90 percent of the Intisar
neighborhood, said one officer, but progress has slowed because
"the streets are too narrow for our tanks." He spoke on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Meanwhile, the U.N. cited new evidence the militants have used
chemical weapons, escalating fears ISIS will resort to chemical
warfare to try to hold onto the city, still home to more than a
million people.
Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in
Geneva that four people died from inhaling fumes after ISIS shelled
and set fires to the al-Mishrag Sulfur Gas Factory in Mosul on Oct.
23.
Shamdasani said reports indicated that ISIS has stockpiled large
amounts of ammonia and sulfur and placed them near civilians. "We
can only speculate how they intend to use this," she said. "We are
simply raising the alarm that this is happening, that this is being
stockpiled."
She also noted a video posted online by ISIS on Wednesday
showing four children, believed to be aged 10 to 14, gunning down
four people accused of spying for Kurdish and Iraqi security
forces.
U.N. officials say about 48,000 people have now fled Mosul since
the government campaign began on Oct. 17