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Islamic State 'begins massacring men and boys inside Mosul'
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has reportedly massacred hundreds of men and boys in Mosul were used as human shields against approaching Iraqi-led forces.
The jihadist group rounded up and shot 284 males before dumping their corpses in a mass grave at a former agriculture college in northern Mosul, according to CNN.
They were reportedly lined up and shot on the grounds of a campus where young Iraqis were once taught how to grow food in their country’s punishing climate and then buried by bulldozer.
The alleged massacre came after the United Nations voiced fears for 550 families who had been seized from nearby villages this week and marched into Mosul.
Thousands of people from the villages of Samalia and Najafia were brought into the city "as human shields as the Iraqi forces advance", the UN said.
Meanwhile, Isil blew up a sulphur plant, sending a toxic cloud wafting towards advancing Iraqi troops and causing American soldiers at a nearby base to don gas masks.
At least two civilians in nearby villages have died from the toxins and the smoke plume slowed down the movement of Iraqi troops, General Qusay Hamid Kadhem told AFP. “This is affecting our planned progress,” he said.
Hospital sources reported that nearly a thousand people were treated for breathing problems after the explosion at the sulphur plant but so far there had been no fatalities.
Some US troops at the nearby Qayyarah base, south of Mosul, put on protective gear after a change in wind sent the sulphur toxins in their directions but no Americans have been hurt by the chemicals.
Ash Carter, the US secretary of defence, made an unscheduled stop in Baghdad so he could be briefed on the progress of coalition forces as they close on Mosul. He was due to meet with Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi and senior military officials.
Mr Carter’s visit was meant partly to try to smooth over tensions between Iraq and Turkey who have been at odds over the Mosul operation. Turkey has insisted that it forces play a role in the assault on Mosul but Iraq has so far firmly resisted any Turkish presence.
Mr al-Abadi reiterated his opposition after the meeting, saying: "I know that the Turks want to participate, we tell them thank you, this is something the Iraqis will handle and the Iraqis will liberate Mosul and the rest of the territories."
Iraqi security forces continued to battle Isil fighters who launched a diversionary attack in the city of Kirkuk. A small force of gunmen and suicide bombers struck inside Kirkuk, which is 100 miles southeast of Mosul, on Friday and the battle continued yesterday.
The group of jihadists struck a prison in an effort to free their imprisoned comrades and also attacked the governor’s offices and several polices station. Iraqi security officials said the attack was an apparent effort to draw Iraqi troops away from the Mosul offensive.
It was not clear if the gunmen were part of a sleeper cell that waited inside Kirkuk for the right moment to strike or if they infiltrated the city from Isil-controlled territory outside.
American forces are supposed to be playing an advisory role for Iraqi and Kurdish troops but a US Navy sailor assigned to help disarm improvised explosive devices (IEDs) was killed on Thursday near Mosul.
Chief petty officer Jason Finan, 34, was the first American to die in the Mosul offensive and the fourth American killed since US operations against Isil began in 2014.
Isis has been putting out daily “fact sheets” on the battle for Mosul on social media. In an update Friday it celebrated chief petty officer Finan’s death as the death of “an American crusader soldier”.
Mosul is Isil’s last city stronghold in Iraq and if it does fall then the so-called caliphate will have only its de facto capital in Raqqa left out of territory that once stretched from northern Syria towards central Iraq.
Iraqi and Kurdish troops have captured a number of villages around the city but are still several miles outside of Mosul itself and bracing for potentially fierce street to street fighting once they get inside.
Karim Sinjari, the interior ministry for the Kurdish regional government, told Reuters that were some signs that people inside Mosul were rising up against Isil in anticipation of the arrival of Iraqi forces.
However, he warned that the battle would be over quickly and that the roughly 8,000 jihadists in the city would put up fierce resistance with suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps.
