Islamic State militants have reportedly murdered dozens of its prisoners.

The militants executed dozens of prisoners taken from villages the group has been forced to abandon by an Iraqi army advance on the city of Mosul in recent days.

Officials in the region said on Wednesday most of those killed were former members of the Iraqi police and army.

These are those that lived in areas under Islamic State control south of Mosul, Abdul Rahman al-Waggaa, a member of the Nineveh provincial council, told Reuters.

The militants forced them to leave their homes with their families, and took them to the town of Hammam Al-Alil, 15 km (9 miles) south of Mosul, where the executions took place, he said in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, east of Mosul.

The men were shot dead, he said, quoting the testimony of remaining residents of the villages and people displaced from the area.

The executions were meant “to terrorize the others, those who are in Mosul in particular”, and also to get rid of the prisoners, he said.

“Daesh (Islamic State) was taking families from each village it left,” said Waggaa.

Separately, Hoshiyar Zebari, an influential Kurdish politician, told Reuters in Erbil that at least 65 people had been executed by Islamic State south of Mosul three days ago.

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