The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has kidnapped nearly 8,000 families from outlying areas of Iraq's Mosul city, and is using them as human shields in an attempt to deter the Iraqi army from attacking their positions, the UN said on Friday.
Given that the average Iraqi family has six members, a total of over 47,300 civilians have been abducted and forced by the jihadis to move to Mosul, Efe news reported.
This is a cowardly strategy to make certain areas immune from military operations, said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, adding that those who refuse to obey the IS orders are executed on the spot.
The abductees came from four different areas on the outskirts of Mosul, where more than a million civilians reside in an area that has been subjected to a large military offensive by Iraqi forces for the last 12 days.
The UN also revealed that the IS group executed 242 persons in Mosul last Wednesday, 90 per cent of whom were former members of the Iraqi security forces, while the rest were civilians who refused to join the terrorists.
--IANS
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