UN reports Daesh mass killings of civilians in Mosul

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA (AA) - Daesh militants have killed more than 231 civilians attempting to flee western Mosul since May 26, including over 200 last week alone, the UN said on Thursday.

"Shooting children as they try to run to safety with their families -- there are no words of condemnation strong enough for such despicable acts," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

"I call on the Iraqi authorities to ensure that those who are responsible for these horrors are held accountable and brought to justice in line with international human rights laws and standards. The victims of such terrible crimes must not be forgotten," he added.

Decrying Daesh’s use of civilians as human shields and its slaughter of those attempting to flee since the start of the Mosul operation, the UN human rights office said that the recent reports indicate a “significant” escalation in such killings.

On June 1, in western Mosul’s neighborhood of al-Shifa, Daesh killed 163 civilians, as well as 41 civilians on June 3, and 27 civilians on May 26, the UN said.

On some 50-80 civilians who were killed by a May 31 airstrike in Zanjilly, a Daesh-held area of western Mosul, Hussein "called on the Iraqi Security Forces and their coalition partners to ensure that their operations comply fully with international humanitarian law and that all possible measures are taken to avoid the loss of civilian lives."

The high commissioner "urged the Iraqi authorities to ensure that any allegations of human rights violations committed by Iraqi Security Forces are also fully investigated and those responsible held accountable."

Iraq has been roiled by violence since Daesh seized vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

Iraqi forces, backed by air cover from a U.S.-led coalition, are currently engaged in a widespread offensive to dislodge Daesh from Mosul, the terrorist group’s last stronghold in Iraq.