GENEVA: A fleeing seven-year-old child was amongst dozens more civilians allegedly executed by the Islamic State group in Mosul in recent weeks, the UN said on Tuesday.
Since the battle to retake the last jihadist bastion in Iraq began six weeks ago, the United Nations rights office has reported hundreds of alleged execution-style killings by IS, stressing that some of the purported atrocities have not been definitively confirmed.
The most recent allegations include a November 22 killing of “a seven-year-old child who was running towards the Iraqi Security Forces in Adan neighbourhood in eastern Mosul”, rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
That shooting was part of a reported trend of IS gunmen spraying fire on those trying to escape the strife-torn city, according to the rights office.
The UN has also received reports about a November 11 massacre in Mosul’s eastern neighbourhood that saw 12 people reportedly shot dead for “refusing to allow (IS) to install and launch rockets from the rooftops of their houses”, said Shamdasani.
She added that IS has apparently “been installing rocket launchers and placing snipers on the rooftops of civilian houses”, in multiple locations, with consequences for residents who refuse to cooperate.
In a November 25 incident, 27 civilians were reportedly shot dead in Mosul’s northern Muhandiseen Park, possibly for “leaking information” to the Iraqi Security Forces, Shamdasani said.
The rights office has said that its standard practice of verifying alleged atrocities through multiple sources has not always been possible amid the chaos in Mosul, but that its information has come from a range of reliable sources on the ground.
