U.N.: 'Barbaric' Islamic State indiscriminately killing civilians amid Mosul fight

MOSUL, Iraq, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The United Nations said the Islamic State has intensified its brutality against civilians since the start of the Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S.-led coalition offensive to retake Mosul.

The Islamic State has moved hundreds of civilians from surrounding villages into Mosul to use as human shields, the United Nations said, adding that the militant Islamist group has killed at least 200 civilians.

In one incident, the Islamic State -- also known as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL -- executed 15 civilians in the village of Safina, located about 28 miles south of Mosul, in order to terrify other residents.

The United Nations said it is receiving reports of extrajudicial and summary executions of women, children and men. U.N. Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville said verifying reports of such atrocities is difficult and they are being vetted by U.N. monitors, but he added that the cruelty seen in preliminary reports is shocking.

"Last Wednesday ... ISIL reportedly tied six civilians to a vehicle by their hands and dragged them around the village, apparently simply because they were related to a particular tribal leader who was fighting against ISIL alongside the Iraqi government forces," Colville while speaking to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

In another incident, the United Nations reported that a disabled child was killed because he was lagging behind a group of civilians who were being forcibly taken to Mosul from a nearby village.

"We very much fear that these will not be the last such reports we receive of such barbaric acts by ISIL, and repeat our call on government forces and their allies to ensure their fighters do not take revenge on any of the civilians who escape from areas under ISIL control and that they treat all suspected ISIL fighters they capture in accordance with international humanitarian law," Colville said.

But the Islamic State is not the only force responsible for killing civilians. Amir Khokram, mayor of the Daquq town, and Human Rights Watch said an airstrike, likely conducted by the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State, killed at least 13 women and children during a funeral in Daquq -- located near Kirkuk, where the Islamic State on Friday launched an attack.

Rudaw reported that more than 1,000 internally displaced people from east Mosul arrived at the Khazir humanitarian camp in the Kurdistan region.

Meanwhile, near the city of Bashiqa on the outskirts of Mosul, the Kurdish Peshmerga took control of the village of Derk and surrounded several villages in the same area on Wednesday. A large cache of Islamic State weapons was also found, Rudaw reported.