GENEVA (Sputnik) — Shamdasani added that the UN knows of forcible movements of people into Mosul by Daesh.
"We have reports that ISIL [Daesh] militants are holding captive nearly 400 women from Kurdish, Yezidi [Yazidi] or Shi’a [Shiite] Muslim communities in Tal Afar. Since 17 October, ISIL has reportedly also been forcibly recruiting children from the age of nine or 10 as fighters in Mosul. Some of these families were told that they may be transported to Syria. We are very concerned that ISIL intends to use these families to shield themselves from air strikes," Shamdasani said at a press briefing.
On October 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of a military operation to retake Mosul from Daesh with the help of airstrikes by the US-led international coalition. According to media reports, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were initially taking part in the operation.
