Friday 13 June 2014 16.23 Hundreds of people were killed, many of them summarily executed, after Sunni Islamist insurgents overran the Iraqi city of Mosul this week, according to UN spokesman.
Iraqi government forces had stopped people at checkpoints and prevented them fleeing Mosul as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants took it over, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said.
ISIS is also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the group's aim is to create an Islamic caliphate encompassing Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
ISIS is now using its own checkpoints to hunt down anyone associated with the Iraqi government.
"The full extent of civilian casualties is not yet known but reports received by UNAMI, the UN mission in Iraq, to this point suggest that the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds and the number of wounded is said to be approaching 1,000," he told a news briefing in Geneva.
UNAMI has its own network of contacts and had interviewed some of the 500,000 who fled Mosul, he said.
It has been reported the group has now become the richest insurgent group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars ($429m) from Mosul's central bank.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi said that ISIS insurgents had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul.
A large quantity of gold bullion is also thought to have been stolen.
A further 40,000 people were estimated to have fled from Tikrit and Samara ,according to the International Organisation for Migration.
"We've received reports of the summary execution of Iraqi army soldiers during the capture of Mosul and of 17 civilians in one particular street in Mosul city on June 11," Mr Colville said.
"There was also the execution of a court employee in the Dawasa area in central Mosul and the execution of 12 people in Dawasa who were believed to have been serving with the Iraq security services or possibly with members of the police."
The "great majority" of the insurgents were Iraqis, Mr Colville said, citing UNAMI reports.
Prisoners released by the insurgents from Mosul prison had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration and some went to Tikrit and killed seven former prison officers there, Mr Colville said.
Meanwhile, the insurgents gained more ground in Iraq overnight, moving into two towns in the eastern province of Diyala after security forces abandoned their posts.
US President Barack Obama threatened US military strikes against the insurgents.
Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for insurgents.
The Iraqi army fired artillery at Saadiya and Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin near the Iranian border, security sources said.
Militants from ISIS had already captured two cities this week - Tikrit in Salaheddin province and second city Mosul in Nineveh.
Since then, they have pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shia-led government.
Iraqi forces clashed with ISIS advancing on the city of Baquba, just 60km north of Baghdad, the offensive spearheaded by jihadists drew closer to the capital.
Security forces were battling insurgents on the outskirts of Muqdadiyah, 35km northeast of Baquba.
Baquba is the capital of Diyala province, whose mixed Arab and Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite, population has made it a byword for violence ever since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Diyala deputy governor Furat al-Tamimi said Kurdish security forces were in control of the Saadiyah and Jalawla districts of the province after the Iraqi army withdrew.
The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have also expanded their territory.
Yesterday, they took control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other areas outside the formal boundary of their enclave.
Iraq blocks social media
Iraq's communications ministry has ordered Internet and mobile companies to block social media websites and applications as insurgents drive towards Baghdad, technicians from two major service providers said.
The technicians said video-sharing site YouTube, social network site Facebook, micro-blogging site Twitter and communications applications WhatsApp and Viber were all affected.
The ministry was not immediately reachable for comment.
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