The Iraqi military says it has found some 100 decapitated bodies in a mass grave south of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.

The spokesman for the Joint Military Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, says the bodies were discovered Monday near the agricultural college in the town of Hamam al-Alil. Most were reduced to skeletons.

A forensics team from Baghdad will investigate the site on Tuesday. Rasool says the state of the bodies made it difficult to tell by their clothes if they were soldiers or civilians.

IS has carried out several massacres since it swept into northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014, often documenting them with photos and videos circulated online.

Iraqi forces launched a massive operation last month to drive the extremists from Mosul and surrounding areas. </s> BAGHDAD — Iraqi investigators were probing a mass grave on Tuesday discovered by troops advancing on the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, where soldiers have captured a sliver of land but later halted their advance.

It appeared to be the latest of several mass graves found in territory retaken from IS, which massacred hundreds of people as it swept across northern and central Iraq in 2014 and is believed to have waged a brutal crackdown since the start of the Mosul offensive.

Associated Press footage from the site shows bones and decomposed bodies among scraps of clothing and plastic bags dug out of the ground by a bulldozer after Iraqi troops noticed the strong smell while advancing into the town of Hamam al-Alil on Monday.

“Investigators flew in this morning and are on their way to the grave to conduct examinations and determine the cause of death,” said Haider Majeed, a Cabinet official in charge of mass grave investigations.

The first officials at the site said the grave, behind an earthen embankment near an agricultural college, likely holds about 100 bodies, many of them decapitated. The town lies some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Mosul.

It was unclear who the victims were, but a soldier at the site pulled a child’s stuffed animal from the scraps of clothing and rotting flesh, swarming with flies.

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said it was investigating whether the discovery at Hamam al-Alil was connected to reports about the alleged killing of police officers in the same area.

“We had reports that 50 former Iraqi police officers had been killed in a building outside Mosul,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said. “This building was actually the same agricultural facility, agricultural college, that has been cited right now as the site of these mass graves.”

She said the U.N. had received reports alleging that IS last week abducted at least 295 former security forces personnel from villages around the northwestern town of Tal Afar, as well as the western Mawaly village area. The men’s fate is currently unknown.

Some 30 sheikhs were also reportedly taken from the Sinjar district, with one report saying that over half of them were killed. IS allegedly forcibly moved about 1,500 families to Mosul airport from Hamam al-Alil, she added.

The campaign to drive IS fighters from Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the extremists’ last major urban stronghold in the country, began on Oct. 17.

Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces are now converging on Mosul, although the deepest advance into an eastern sliver of the city has stalled after militants counterattacked from built-up, populated areas.

To the northeast, some 13 kilometres (8 miles) from the city, the peshmerga continued their push on the town of Bashiqa, believed to be largely deserted except for dozens of IS fighters.

Mortar fire, automatic weapons, and explosions rang out through the morning, as a thick plume of smoke hung over parts of the town, obscuring the view of aircraft.

The United Nations says over 34,000 people have been displaced from Mosul, with about three quarters settled in camps and the rest in host communities.

In a report issued overnight, the U.N. human rights office said food, water and medicine have been distributed to more than 41,000 displaced people and vulnerable residents fleeing the fighting.

Since the battle for Mosul reached the city itself on Nov. 4, some 11,000 people have fled eastwards, while some electricity and water supplies have been cut in eastern neighbourhoods.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, small-scale bombings killed at least eight people and wounded 28 others, according to police and medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The capital has seen near-daily bombings since the Mosul operation began, but no large-scale attacks. The bombings are believed to have been carried out by IS, which has frequently targeted Iraq’s security forces and Shiite majority.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Salah Salaheddin in Irbil, Iraq contributed to this report. </s> Iraqi security forces say they have discovered a mass grave containing some 150 decapitated corpses in the town of Hammam al-Alil which was seized from Islamic State last week. Mana Rabiee reports. </s> Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave with the remains of at least 60 Iraqi civilians was found in the former Islamic State bastion, Mosul, a police officer was quoted saying on Wednesday.

Cap. Amir Watheq, from Nineveh police force, told BasNews website that security forces found the grave at Hammam al-Alil in southern Mosul, adding that most of the remains belonged to women who attempted to flee the area during the military campaign to retake the region.

As Iraqi troops recaptured areas held by Islamic State militants since 2014, they have regularly run into mass graves of civilians and security agents executed by the militants for fleeing the group’s havens or collaborating with security forces.

Iraq’s war against the Islamic State displaced millions of civilians both inside and outside the country, and left thousands dead, according to government and United Nations figures. In 2017 alone, violence left more than 3000 dead and more than 4000 wounded.

Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State last December, ending a three-year war to bring down the group’s self-styled “caliphate” declared from Nineveh’s Mosul in 2014. Security continues to comb recaptured areas for remnant cells as a number of attacks against civilians and security grew fears of their resurgence. </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field.

IS also tried to transport about 25,000 civilians from Hammam al-Alil, a town south of Mosul, on dozens of trucks and minibuses during the hours of darkness early on Monday, probably for use as human shields in defense of IS positions, she said.

Most of the trucks, which were heading toward the Tal Afar district, turned back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, but some buses did reach Abu Saif, 15 km (10 miles) north of Hammam al-Alil, she said.

“We have grave concerns for these and tens of thousands of other civilians who have reportedly been forcibly relocated by ISIL (Islamic State) in the past two weeks,” she said.

IS fighters were taking people closer and closer to Mosul city and putting them close to their offices and to installations that could constitute military targets, Shamdasani said.

“That seems to support the assertion that they are planning to use these people as human shields, as well as ensuring that the area is heavily populated with civilians to frustrate a military operation against them,” she said.

“They are also killing some people that they are abducting, especially people who formerly belonged to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

The 40 former Iraqi soldiers killed on Saturday were among civilians who had been abducted earlier from the al-Shura sub-district of Mosul and from villages around Hammam al-Alil.

There may be many more, Shamdasani said, adding that the U.N.’s reports were “raw information” from reliable sources and were by no means comprehensive.

Although there would be a “temptation for revenge” against captured IS fighters, the U.N. had not documented any such abuses, and it welcomed the Iraqi government’s pledge to put protection of civilians at the heart of their strategy, Shamdasani said.

She also said there were no reports of coalition air strikes killing civilians, including those people being held as human shields. </s> Those who have been executed included civilians who have refused to comply with the relocation orders and 190 former Iraqi Security Forces officers.

Islamic State group fighters slaughtered at least 232 people in and around Mosul this week as Iraqi troops advanced on the city, the U.N. rights office said Friday.

"Last Wednesday, 232 civilians were reportedly shot to death. Of these there were 190 former Iraqi Security Forces officers," rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

"These reports have been corroborated to the extent possible," she added, stressing that the number of people killed in recent days could be higher.

Ms. Shamdasani said the execution-style killings came as IS was pushing forward with its strategy of forcing people living near the northern Iraqi city into Mosul, the group's last bastion in Iraq.

The rights office has said the jihadists aim to use these people as "human shields" in the ensuing battle for Mosul against US-backed elite Iraqi troops.

"ISIL has been forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes in some districts around Mosul," Ms. Shamdasani said .

Those who have been executed included civilians who have refused to comply with the relocation orders and those who previously worked for the government security services. </s> An Iraqi special forces soldier peeks through a hole in a door as his unit gets ready to search a compound in Gogjali, an eastern district of Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday (AP photo)

BAGHDAD/BARTELLA, Iraq — US-backed Iraqi forces moved closer on Wednesday to a town south of Mosul where aid groups and regional officials say the Daesh terror group has executed dozens of prisoners.

A military statement said security forces advanced to the edge of Hammam Al Alil, a thermal water resort, after an elite unit breached the eastern limits of Mosul, the ultra-hardline group's last major city stronghold in Iraq.

The battle that started on October 17 with air and ground support from a US-led coalition is shaping up as the largest in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Mosul still has a population of 1.5 million people, much more than any of the other cities captured by Daesh two years ago in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The United Nations cited reports on Tuesday that Daesh is attempting to displace Hammam Al Alil's estimated population of 25,000 for use as human shields and protection against air and artillery strikes.

“We have grave concerns for the safety of these and the tens of thousands of other civilians who have reportedly been forcibly relocated by ISIL [Daesh] in the past two weeks,” UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.

The town, 15km south of Mosul, had a pre-war population of 65,000, a local official said.

 Aid organisations, local officials and Mosul residents have cited reports that Daesh has executed dozens of people in Hammam Al Alil and barracks nearby on suspicion of planning rebellions in and around Mosul to aid the advancing troops.

Abdul Rahman Al Waggaa, a member of the Nineveh provincial council, told Reuters last week that most of the victims were former police and army members. The men were shot dead, he said, quoting the testimony of remaining residents of the villages and people displaced from the area.

Security forces advancing north on the western bank of the Tigris River recaptured five villages on Wednesday, the closest of them just 5 km from Hammam Al Alil, according to military statements.

Just across the river from those forces lie the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, which the Iraqi government says was bulldozed last year as part of Daesh’s campaign to destroy symbols which the extremists consider idolatrous. Army troops heading north on that side of the Tigris have yet to reach the area.

The United Nations has said the Mosul offensive could trigger a humanitarian crisis and a possible refugee exodus if the civilians inside in Mosul seek to escape, with up to 1 million people fleeing in a worst-case scenario.

The International Organisation for Migration said nearly 21,000 people have been displaced since the start of the campaign, excluding thousands of villagers taken into Mosul by retreating extremists who used them as human shields.

Elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) troops were the first to breach Mosul’s official boundary this week. They said on Tuesday they were in control of the state television station.

A CTS commander, Lt. General Abdul Ghani Al Assadi, told reporters in Bartella, a village east of Mosul, that the unit will pause its advance on the eastern front because of some rainfall early on Wednesday.

“God willing the next stage will begin within hours. This depends on the weather,” he said.

A resident of Mosul’s eastern Karama district, still under Daesh control, said on Wednesday four people were killed in artillery fire and air strikes, and said he saw two partially destroyed houses.

“There’s a compulsory curfew in our area. The women and children are frightened and the men can’t do anything. We can’t even help the wounded,” the resident told Reuters by telephone.

“One person was wounded by shrapnel in his house and he bled to death. No one could save him. We can’t retrieve the bodies. Anyone who leaves his house risks his life.”

However, residents said the city was quieter than on Tuesday.

 Assadi said a curfew had been imposed on the recaptured eastern suburb of Kokjali to protect residents from mortar bombs fired by the insurgents.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters are also deployed on the eastern and northern fronts, and Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias are attacking Daesh west of Mosul.

Some Sunni Muslim volunteers opposed to Daesh also want to join the battle. Amnesty International said on Wednesday fighters from one group, the Sab’awi tribal militia, tortured and humiliated men and boys in villages southeast of Mosul who were suspected of having ties to Daesh.

“There is strong evidence that Sab’awi tribal militia members have committed crimes under international law by torturing and otherwise ill-treating residents... in revenge for crimes committed by [Daesh],” Amnesty’s Lynn Maalouf said.

In one incident, seven men and boys were placed in poultry cages in the middle of a public roundabout. They were brought out one by one, forced to say they were donkeys, and were beaten, Amnesty said.

There have been no reports of abuses by pro-Iranian militias, but their involvement is causing alarm in Turkey which has had troops deployed north of the city since last year to train and support some of the Sunni Arab volunteers.

The Turkish army has begun deploying tanks and other armoured vehicles to the town of Silopi near the Iraqi border.

Turkey says it has a responsibility to protect ethnic Turkmens and Sunni Arabs in the area around Mosul, once part of the Ottoman Empire. It fears both Kurdish PKK militants and Shiite militias, which the Iraqi army has relied on in the past, will be used in the campaign and stoke ethnic bloodletting.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said after a Cabinet session in Baghdad on Tuesday that tensions with Turkey have eased in the last week but that Iraq would respond to any “violation” of its territory. </s> Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave containing human remains of burnt bodies has been found, north of Ramadi, Anbar Operations Command announced on Thursday.

“Troops of the army’s tenth division, affiliated to Anbar Operations Command, ran into a mass grave containing remains of unidentified burnt bodies inside a house in al-Tarabisha region, north of Ramadi,” a senior source from the command told AlSumaria News.

“The bodies have not been recognized yet; whether they are civilians or members of the Islamic State militant group,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.

Thousands of IS militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.

A total of 104 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, while 177 others were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in March, according to casualty figures by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

As many as 3,298 civilians were killed and 4,781 others were wounded in 2017, excluding Anbar civilian casualty figures for November and December, which are not available, UNAMI said in a report in December.

In December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members. </s> Islamic State militants have allegedly executed at least 284 men and boys in the Iraqi city of Mosul and nearby villages. Jihadists, who had used them as human shields, dumped the victims’ bodies in a mass grave, according to a report.

The victims, children among them, were all shot dead on Thursday and Friday, an Iraqi intelligence source, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNN.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) seized Mosul in June of 2014, when it was Iraq’s second-largest city. The terrorist group’s leader then turned it into a major military stronghold, and it is believed that between 4,000 and 8,000 IS militants are currently entrenched there, according to Reuters. An estimated 1.5 million people remain in the city.

On Friday, Islamic State militants took some 550 families from the villages around Mosul, holding them as human shields close to jihadist positions, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights office said. Citing “corroborated information,” she said the office was also investigating reports that they had killed 40 civilians in one village, Reuters reported.

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The battle for Mosul, the jihadists’ last major stronghold in Iraq, began on Sunday, and has since gained momentum. The Iraqi military and US-led coalition said that the operation to retake the strategically important city may take weeks or even months.

Earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) sounded the alarm amid the carnage surrounding the new offensive, warning that IS militants may unleash chemical attacks and use tens of thousands as human shields.

“Tens of thousands of people may be forcibly expelled, they will be getting trapped between fighting lines under siege, they may even be held as human shields,” IOM’s chief of mission for Iraq, Thomas Weiss, told Reuters.

The UN says the aftermath of the Mosul campaign could require the “largest and most complex” humanitarian relief operation in the world, as up to one million people may be forced from their homes.

IS attack on Kirkuk

With Iraqi and Kurdish forces pushing to seize territory around Mosul, the jihadists launched an attack on government buildings in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. On Friday, Islamic State militants reportedly entered houses and mosques in the city, which is located some 174 kilometers (108 miles) from Mosul, and took civilians as hostages. They also broke into a kindergarten building, according to a Rudaw news agency report citing the city’s police chief.

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A curfew was reportedly imposed amid ongoing clashes on Friday. Jihadist terrorists entered Kirkuk’s Asfra Mafqudin quarter in two cars at dawn and knocked on doors, telling people they were “fighters from Islamic State,” according to one eyewitness, who said that the locals were forced to take up arms to defend themselves.

At least 12 IS militants were killed by security and police forces in Kirkuk on Friday, Rudaw reported.

The city, which had been home to about half a million people before the outbreak of hostilities, has taken in some 700,000 displaced people from the country’s central and southern provinces since Islamic State took control of one-third of Iraq in mid-2014, according to Rudaw.

The oil-rich city is claimed by both the Iraqi government and the Kurds in the region. Kurdish forces assumed full control of the city in the summer of 2014, as the Iraqi army crumbled before an IS advance.
Iraqi Army discover at least 100 beheaded bodies as they retake Hamam al-Alil, the last major settlement south of Mosul.