Islamic State 'massacring civilians' as Iraqi troops close on Mosul

Islamic State fighters have reportedly massacred scores of people around its Iraq stronghold of Mosul in the past week, the UN said on Tuesday, as Iraqi troops closed in on Mosul.

The allegations - which remain "preliminary" - have come from a range of civilian and government sources, who cannot be named for security reasons, said UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville.

The reported atrocities were carried out by the Islamic militants between Wednesday and Sunday, while Iraqi forces advanced towards Mosul, Colville said.

In a village called Safina, about 45km south of Mosul, IS was blamed for executing 15 civilians before throwing their bodies in a river.

On 19 October, also in Safina, IS fighters "reportedly tied six civilians to a vehicle by their hands and dragged them around the village, apparently simply because they were related to a particular tribal leader fighting against ISIL," Colville said, using another acronym for IS.

Iraqi security forces found another 70 bodies riddled with bullet wounds on 20 October in the nearby Tuloul Naser village. Colville said it was not immediately clear who was responsible for their deaths.

And on Saturday, IS gunmen allegedly shot dead three women and three girls during a forced march in Rufeila village south of Mosul.

The group was killed because they were struggling to keep up, likely because one of the girls who was ultimately shot dead had a physical disability, the rights office said.

The 50 police officers who had been held hostage by IS were reportedly executed in a building outside Mosul on Sunday, Colville told reporters in Geneva.

"We very much fear that these will not be the last such reports we receive of such barbaric acts by ISIL," he said.

He added that all the allegations "need a bit more (investigative) work" before the UN can conclusively say they took place.

The rights office also restated its fears that IS will use civilians in Mosul as human shields as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city in an operation backed by a US-led coalition.