The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that Islamic State fighters may have captured up to 3,000 fleeing Iraqi villagers on Thursday and subsequently executed 12 of them.
The UNHCR said on Friday in Baghdad in its daily report on events in Iraq, that it has received reports that ISIL captured on 4 August up to 3,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) from villages in Hawiga District in Kirkuk Governorate trying to flee to Kirkuk city.
The report noted that 12 of the IDPs have been killed in captivity.
The U.S. is leading a military coalition conducting air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, where the group seized broad swathes of territory in 2014.
“A report from the Iraqi Observatory for Human rights, which said about 1,900 civilians had been captured by an estimated 100-120 Islamic State fighters, who were using people as shields against attacks by Iraqi Security Forces. Tens of civilians had been executed, and six burnt.
The fighting had displaced 3.4 million people in Iraq by July 2016.
The agency said that Islamic State’s grip on some towns has been broken, but it still controls its de facto capitals of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
Last month the UN appealed for 284 million dollars to prepare aid for an assault on Mosul, as well as up to 1.8 billion dollars to deal with the aftermath.
“UN Financial Tracking Service Said that it has so far received nothing in response.
UNHCR said it has begun building a site northeast of Mosul for 6,000 people and is preparing another northwest of the city for 15,000, a fraction of those expected to need shelter.
It said that tens of thousands who fled from the city of Falluja have still not returned since its recapture from Islamic State in June.
The agency recalled that three volunteers helping to clear Falluja …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
