The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday accused the Islamic State group of murdering 163 civilians to prevent them from fleeing Iraq's western Mosul last week.
"Yesterday, my staff reported to me that bodies of murdered Iraqi men, women and children still lay on the streets of the al-Shira neighbourhood of western Mosul, after at least 163 people were shot and killed by Daesh to prevent them from fleeing," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
His spokesman Rupert Colville told AFP that the killings were believed to have taken place on June 1.