Children and elderly forced by ISIS to carry out executions
As the Islamic State continues to lose ground in Mosul, the terror group has released a new propaganda video showing children and the elderly being forced to carry out barbaric executions.
Other parts of the propaganda video show ISIS militants crucifying alleged traitors to instill fear in the people who remain in the city.
The operation to liberate Mosul from ISIS began when a 94,000-member Iraqi-led coalition began to move towards the city in October.
Military commanders are worried that the battle to liberate Iraq's second largest city could take months before the remaining ISIS fighters are killed or captured.
"The battle of Mosul will not be a picnic. We are prepared for the battle of Mosul even if it lasts for months," said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, a Shia militia fighting with Iraqi government forces.
Pro-Iranian Iraqi Shi'ite militias joined the fighting on Saturday with the aim of cutting off the route between Mosul and Raqqa, the main stronghold of ISIS In Syria. There have been concerns that the Shia militia will murder innocent Sunnis in Mosul, as they have done in the attacks on other former ISIS strongholds such as Ramadi and Fallujah.
U.N. officials reported that the terror group had displaced thousands of civilians from villages toward Mosul to use them as "human shields." The group has set oil wells on fire in an attempt to cover their movements.
"Scorched earth tactics employed by retreating ISIS members are having an immediate health impact on civilians, and risk long-term environmental and health consequences," said the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In another desperate move, ISIS deployed its brigade of child soldiers dubbed as "cubs of the caliphate." More than 300 ISIS child soldiers have reportedly been killed in Mosul since the offensive began, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"This will raise the death toll to at least 480 Syrian fighters killed in the ranks of the Islamic State since the start of the battles in the Mosul area, among them more than 300 child soldiers from the 'lion cubs of the caliphate'," said the U.K.-based watchdog organization.
