ISIS captures 3,000 Iraqi villagers who were fleeing extremist group, UNHCR reports
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday that the Islamic State militants captured up to 3,000 Iraqi villagers trying to escape and executed 12 of them.
"UNHCR has received reports that ISIL captured on 4 August up to 3,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) from villages in Hawiga District in Kirkuk Governorate trying to flee to Kirkuk city. Reportedly, 12 of the IDPs have been killed in captivity," said the UNHCR in its daily report on Iraq, according to Reuters.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human rights also reported that about 100-120 fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group captured an estimated 1,900 civilians and executed tens of them, including six who were burnt.
"We are facing the risk of a massacre and the government has to move quickly," Sheikh Anwar al-Assi, a local tribe leader, told the AFP.
Assi estimated that at least 100,000 civilians remain trapped in the Hawijah, one of the remaining ISIS strongholds. An unnamed brigadier general under the Kurdish forces also said that at least 600 people, who managed to escape on Thursday, reported that ISIS held hundreds of families in the area as hostages and executed the young men trying to escape.
The U.N. previously raised the alarms as around 50,000 civilians in Fallujah remain trapped in dire conditions as the Iraqi security forces backed by the U.S. air strikes and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters set out an offensive to retake the Iraqi city in June.
"Although local authorities have suggested that returns to Falluja could begin in September, the Ministry of Migration and Displacement has stated that it may take another three months before conditions are conducive for large-scale returns," said UNHCR.
After claiming victory on Fallujah, the Iraqi security forces sets their next target on Mosul, one of Iraq's major cities and the capital of the ISIS caliphate. The U.N. expects a larger number of internally displaced people as a result of the Mosul battle and already called for $284 million in aid as the assault draws near and up to $1.8 billion for assistance after the battle. The U.N. Financial Tracking Service said they have received nothing as of yet.