Islamic State extremists abduct 300 people near Mosul, U.N. says

GENEVA – More than 300 former Iraqi security forces and sheiks have been abducted by Islamic State extremists near Mosul in recent days, the U.N. Human Rights Office reported on Tuesday.

The alleged kidnappings come as Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga and militias are waging an offensive against the northern city that is the Islamic State’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

The UN rights office had received reports that at least 195 former security force members were abducted in the Tel Afar area West of Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said at a press conference in Geneva.

In addition, at least 100 former officers were reportedly abducted in Mawaly village, 20 kilometres West of Mosul.

Shamdasani added that 30 sheiks had been kidnapped and 18 of them had been killed in Sinjar district.

These incidents took place between Nov. 1 and Nov. 4.

The UN report came a day after a mass grave with 100 headless bodies was reported in a town that was recently recaptured from Islamic State south of Mosul.

“We are working to get more information about the people who were killed,” Shamdasani said.

The bodies were found in the same area where Islamic State militants killed 50 former Iraqi police officers on Oct. 23.

It was still unclear whether the latest discovery was from the same or from a different mass killing, she explained.