ISIS has taken an estimated 1,600 civilians to Mosul to shield themselves from airstrikes, the office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported today.
Last week, the UN reported that the population of the town of Hamam al-Alil had nearly tripled, from 23,000 to 60,000 as ISIS brought civilians into the town to use as human shields.
On Wednesday, 150 of the families in Hamam al-Alil were taken to Mosul, while “trucks full of abducted civilians” were taken to Tal Afar, the UN said on Friday.
The OHCHR also has reports that nearly 400 women from minority communities are being held captive in Tal Afar; the women are Kurdish, Yezidi, and Shia.
Human Rights Watch reported that ISIS militants were forcing civilians to accompany the fighters, “including into areas of armed combat,” in a statement released today. The monitoring group urged coalition fighters, including Iraqi and Kurdish forces, to take “all feasible precautions to protect civilians during attacks.”
The numbers of people fleeing the military offensive have increased as the fighting has moved into the more heavily populated areas of Mosul suburbs and the city itself.
On Friday, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, opened a new camp in Hasan Shami, behind Peshmerga lines, to accommodate the increasing numbers of internally displaced (IDPs).
“Huge columns of cars, trucks and farm vehicles carrying men, women and children escaping the frontlines began arriving overnight and continued throughout the day,” the UNHCR reported on Friday.
“The past 24 hours has seen the biggest displacement so far since the Mosul offensive began,” the agency said, adding that the total number of IDPs is now around 30,000.
