ISIS Continues to Use Human Shields and Executes 232

ISIS Continues to Use Human Shields and Executes Civilians

By Hailey Lawrence

 

Mosul is becoming a hotspot for human rights issues of ISIS activity since the Battle of Mosul has gone underway. While it seems that their tactics are singular and have the sole purpose to be barbaric in their ways to inflict fear, Mosul has revealed the new monster that ISIS is capable of. 

Iraqi forces and other forces have been moving from the south towards Mosul.

According to a spokesman for the human rights arm for the UN, ISIS did a series of mass killings on Wednesday for civilians and other people who defied its orders, CNN said.

"ISIS executed 42 civilians in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul. Also on Wednesday ISIS executed 190 former Iraqi security forces for refusing to join them, in the Al Ghazlani base near Mosul," said Ravina Shamdasani of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Additionally, the office reported that there were 24 former Iraqi security forces officers killed on Tuesday. More civilian deaths were confirmed as ISIS tries to herd civilians as human shields on the outskirts of Mosul. 

ISIS has been herding tens of thousands of men, women, and children like cattle around Mosul as forces continue to move closer and closer. While forces continue to move in from the south and are clearing out homemade bombs and traps ISIS left behind, 160 families from Qayyara,  2,210 families from the Nimrud area of Hamdaniya district, 5,370 families from around al Shura, and 150 more from around Hammam al-Alil, Shamdasani have been ripped from their homes to be human shields, according to CNN. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein criticized ISIS' strategy and said it was the work of cowards.

He called it a "depraved, cowardly strategy is to attempt to use the presence of civilians to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations, effectively using tens of thousands of women, men and children as human shields."

Alternatively, US Army Gen. Joseph Votel said on Thursday that the US and other allies have killed between 800 to 900 ISIS fighters since the beginning of the Battle of Mosul. 

While the battle is a lot more than what it seemed to be, progress is being made slowly but surely.

For more on the humanitarian issues involving ISIS and Mosul, click here