ISIS executed 284 men and boys as coalition forces closed in on Mosul, an Iraqi intelligence source told CNN.
Those killed Thursday and Friday had been rounded up near and in the city for use as human shields against attacks that are forcing ISIS out of the southern sections of Mosul, the source explained.
ISIS used a bulldozer to dump the corpses in a mass grave at the scene of the executions — Mosul’s defunct College of Agriculture in the north of the city, the intelligence source said.
The victims were all shot and some were children, said the source, who wanted anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. CNN could not independently confirm the claim.
Latest developments
• Iraqi army troops advance toward the town of Tal Kayf to storm it.
• A large scale offensive is launched early Saturday to re-take al-Hamdaniya.
• US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter arrives in Baghdad on Saturday on an unannounced visit.
UN ‘gravely worried’ over human shield use
The United Nations said Friday it is “gravely worried” that ISIS has taken 550 families from villages around Mosul and is using them as human shields as Iraqi and Kurdish forces battle the terror group for control of Iraq’s second-largest city.
Two hundred families from Samalia village and 350 families from Najafia were forced out Monday and taken to Mosul in what appears to be “an apparent policy by ISIS to prevent civilians escaping,” Ravina Shamdasani, deputy spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, told CNN.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his office had evidence of several instances since Monday where ISIS forced civilians to leave their homes in outlying villages and head to Mosul. It also had received reports that civilians suspected of disloyalty had been shot dead.
“We are gravely worried by reports that (ISIS) is using civilians in and around Mosul as human shields as the Iraqi forces advance, keeping civilians close to their offices or places where fighters are located, which may result in civilian casualties,” Hussein said.
“There is a grave danger that (ISIS) fighters will not only use such vulnerable people as human shields but may opt to kill them rather than see them liberated,” he said.
His office is examining reports that ISIS shot dead at least 40 civilians in a village outside Mosul.
Any ISIS fighters who are captured or surrendered “should be held accountable in accordance with the law for any crimes they have committed,” he said.
Iraqi forces move on al-Hamdaniya
The Iraqi military launched a large offensive early Saturday to retake al-Hamdaniya city– also known as Qaraqosh — from ISIS, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command center said in a statement.
Al-Hamdaniya city is about 15 kilometers (nine miles) southeast of Mosul.
Iraqi troops entered the al-Askary neighborhood and liberated the mayor’s building and the city’s main hospital, and raised the Iraqi flag over these buildings, said Lt Gen. Qassim al-Maliky.
At least 50 ISIS militants were killed and some of their equipment destroyed by Iraqi troop advancement, he added.
Tal Kayf is next target
Iraqi troops are also advancing toward Tal Kayf town and plan on storming it, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said Saturday.
The Chaldean town of Tal Kayf is approximately 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Mosul.
CNN analysis indicates this is the closest Iraqi Security Forces have come yet to the city of Mosul.
US defense chief pays a visit
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter arrived in Baghdad on Saturday on an unannounced visit.
Carter is expected to receive an update on the Mosul offensive and meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi before attending a troop event.
US forces in Iraq are providing air support for the Mosul operation as part of an international coalition. US special operations forces are also advising Iraqi and Kurdish units on the ground.
Clashes in Kirkuk, Laylan
At least 40 people were killed and 76 others wounded, the majority of them security forces, in attacks by ISIS on several neighborhoods in Kirkuk since Friday, several security sources told CNN on Saturday.
ISIS fighters targeted four police stations and Kurdish security offices Friday, spreading themselves out through several neighborhoods. Kirkuk is 175 kilometers (109 miles) southeast of Mosul.
The media wing of ISIS, Amaq, said online that ISIS fighters had attacked Kirkuk before dawn and taken control of 10 neighborhoods as well as carried out attacks to the north and south of the city.
Previous attacks by ISIS militants on Kirkuk have been attempts either to capture the city from the Peshmerga, as the Kurdish fighters are known, or divert Kurdish troops from the fight in Mosul.
ISIS militants also tried to infiltrate Laylan town, 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Kirkuk, but Peshmerga forces, Kirkuk police officers and Shiite Turkman paramilitary forces engaged with them, killing nine of the attackers, Mohammed Wais, the mayor of Laylan town, told CNN.
Some members of the security forces were injured during this attack, among them the commander of the Turkman paramilitary forces, Wais added.
About 4,000 families are housed in four camps for internally displaced people in Laylan, said Ammar Sabah, director of the Displacement and Migration Department in Kirkuk.
The most likely reason for the attacks in Kirkuk is disruption, with ISIS demonstrating it can deploy resources far behind the front lines, CNN’s Michael Holmes said near Mosul.