Offensive to Liberate Mosul: IS executes hundreds

Islamic State militants 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 IS out of the southern sections of Mosul, the source explained.

IS 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 authorised to speak to the media.  CNN could not independently confirm the claim.

The United Nations said Friday it is "gravely worried" that IS 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 IS 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.

His office is examining reports that IS shot dead at least 40 civilians in a village outside Mosul.

On the ground, Iraqi army troops yesterday stormed into a Christian region that has been under Islamic State control since 2014.

The advance took place as US Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrived on a visit to Baghdad to meet Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and assess the campaign that started on Monday with air and ground support from the US-led coalition.

A military statement said Iraqi units entered the center of Qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town about 20 kms (13 miles) southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mop-up operations across the town.

Further action was under way to seize a neighboring Christian village, Karamless, also known as Karemlash in the Syriac language.

Earlier this week, Iraqi special units also captured Bartella, a Christian village north of Qaraqosh.

Iraqi troops are also advancing toward Tal Kayf town and plan on storming it, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said yesterday.

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.

The offensive on Mosul is expected to become the biggest battle fought in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The militants retaliated to the advance of the Iraqi forces and the Kurdish fighters in Mosul by attacking on Friday Kirkuk, an oil city that lies east Hawija, a pocket they continue to control between Baghdad and Mosul.

Authorities in Kirkuk regained control of the city yesterday and partially lifted a curfew declared after the militants stormed police stations and other buildings. The region's oil producing facilities were not damaged.

At least 50 people have been killed and 80 others wounded in clashes between security forces and the militants in Kirkuk, according to a hospital sources.

However, jihadist snipers and suspected suicide bombers were still at large, prompting Baghdad to send reinforcements.

The large city, which lies in an oil-producing region some 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, woke up on Friday to find jihadists roaming the streets of several neighbourhoods.

They used mosque loudspeakers to broadcast praise of their self-proclaimed "caliphate", which has been shrinking steadily since last year and is looking closer than ever to collapse.

One attacker captured by the Kurdish security services on Friday claimed that the Kirkuk raid was planned by IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a diversion from the offensive on Mosul.

Mosul is much the most populous city in the "caliphate" Baghdadi declared in June 2014 and the operation to recapture it is Iraq's largest in years.

Its loss would deal a huge blow to IS and could mark the end of its days as a land-holding force in Iraq.

With 3,000 to 4,500 men facing tens of thousands of Iraqi forces backed by massive US-led air power, the outcome of the battle is in little doubt.