BAGHDAD: The United Nations said Tuesday more than 1,000 people – at least three-quarters of them civilians – were killed this month as militants swept through large swathes of northern and western Iraq.
At least 1,075 people were killed and 658 were injured in the country in the 17 days from June 5 to 22, Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office told reporters in Geneva.
He said the numbers “should be viewed very much as a minimum.” At least 757 civilians were killed and another 599 injured in the provinces of Nineveh, Diyala and Salah al-Din, he said.
Colville said the death toll includes summary executions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, police, and soldiers who had stopped fighting.
“This figure which should be viewed very much as a minimum includes a number of verified summary executions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, police, and soldiers who were hors (de) combat,” media outlets quoted Colville as saying on Tuesday.
The UN spokesman also said some 318 others were killed in terrorist attacks in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
The world body said at least 757 people were killed in ISIL-fueled militancy in Nineveh, Diyala and Salahuddin Provinces.
New pictures have emerged online of atrocities and mass killing of Iraqi soldiers and civilians at the hands of militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). Recently, a similar gruesome video was released, purportedly showing members of the ISIS group brutally killing Shia Muslims in drive-by shootings in Iraq.
AIR RAIDS:
Meanwhile Iraqi army warplanes Tuesday pounded several areas in the strategic oil town of Baiji, killing over a dozen militants and injuring several others.
The causalities come after warplanes targeted militants hideouts in the town of Baiji and its surroundings on Tuesday.
Iraqi media reports say at least 17 others were severely injured in the raids.
This comes as the army and thousands of volunteers are trying to repel the militants’ renewed push to seize Iraq’s largest oil refinery north of Baghdad.
The militants from ISIS claim they have captured the refinery. However, the army says it is in full control of the site.
The strategically important refinery has been the scene of heavy fighting since militants launched a major offensive on June 9. It has filled some 50 percent of Iraq’s demand for refined oil products.
In a separate development, the Iraqi army soldiers began conducting mop-up operations in the east and north of the country.
The armed forces gunned down an unspecified number of militants from the ISIS in the eastern Diyala Province.
Military officials say government forces are now in full control of southern areas in Tal Afar, west of Mosul.
The Iraqi forces have also killed at least 80 militants in the north of Samarra in Salahuddin Province. The army says more than 20 vehicles were also destroyed in that operation.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that the countrys security forces would confront the terrorists, calling the seizure of some Iraqi towns a conspiracy. The premier has also blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the security crisis and growing terrorism in his country, denouncing Riyadh as a major supporter of global terrorism.
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