ISLAMIC State fighters have captured as many as 3,000 people fleeing the fighting in northern Iraq, burning some to death and executing a dozen others in a bloody cull.
ISIS has used the men, women and children as human shields as they come under sustained attack from US-backed Iraqi government forces.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human rights gave an initial account that some 1,900 civilians had been captured.
Many were said to be escaping the bloodshed near Kirkuk, between Baghdad and Mosul, the terror group’s de facto capital in Iraq.
Islamic State's grip on some towns has been broken, but it still controls Mosul and Raqqa in Syria.
The UNHCR report said: “UNHCR has received reports that ISIL captured on 4 August up to 3,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) from villages in Hawiga District in Kirkuk Governorate trying to flee to Kirkuk city. Reportedly, 12 of the IDPs have been killed in captivity.”
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