Daesh executes 25 civilians in Mosul: Rights group

By Arif Yusuf and Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD (AA) – Daesh militants have executed 25 Iraqi civilians in the northern city of Mosul -- now the subject of a major offensive -- for alleged cooperation with security forces, a human rights group said.

In a Wednesday statement, Jawad al-Shimari, spokesman for the High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq, said the civilians had been detained by Daesh militants from areas across the northern Nineveh province.

“They were accused of spying for the Iraqi security forces,” he said.

Al-Shimari said Daesh militants have also held around 2,000 civilians in Tal Afar, 65 kilometers west of Mosul, to use them as human shields.

Rights activist Iman al-Jabouri, for her part, confirmed that the militant group was holding hundreds of civilians in Mosul in an attempt to stop Iraqi forces from advancing into the city.

“The terrorist group moves to hold more civilians to use as human shields whenever Iraqi forces advance into the city,” she said.

Last month, the Iraqi army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and local allies on the ground -- launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at retaking Mosul, the last Daesh stronghold in northern Iraq.

Once Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population, Mosul -- along with additional swathes of territory in the country’s north and west -- was overrun by Daesh in mid-2014.