Close to 48,000 displaced since beginning of Mosul operations: UNHCR

A number of 47,730 civilians have fled their homes since military operations to retake the Islamic State (IS) controlled Iraqi city of Mosul began last month, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported Friday.

"Numbers have approximately doubled in the last week and are expected to continue to rise as the fighting continues," the agency warned in a statement.

"Several significant population movements from Mosul were recorded in the last week, especially around Gogjali and the city's eastern neighborhoods," it added.

As fighting for one of the IS last strongholds in the regions continues, these developments come amid ongoing reports of mass killings, summary executions and sexual exploitation carried out by IS fighters.

"Heart-breaking images of children being forced to carry out executions, stories of women being 'redistributed' among ISIL fighters, of killings for possession of SIM cards, and killings of those perceived to be opposed to ISIL's takfiri doctrines," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein deplored in a statement.

"The forced displacement of tens of thousands of civilians and their exploitation as human shields ... the extent of civilian suffering in Mosul and other ISIL-occupied areas in Iraq is numbing and intolerable," he added.

The alleged use of chemical weapons used by the extremist group has also been documented, with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warning that reports suggest that the IS has been stockpiling large quantities of both ammonia and sulphur in the same locations as civilians.

Supported by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi troops kicked off operations on Oct. 17 to recapture the city which fell into IS hands in June 2014 after government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.

International aircraft as well as Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition artillery units are supporting ground operations there.

According to reports, more than 5,000 IS militants were initially holed up in Mosul to defend the city, though they are quickly losing ground amid ongoing military operations. Endit