Iraqi government troops have uncovered a prison used by Daesh to hold residents in the recently recaptured town of Hammam al-Alil, located south of the northern city of Mosul.
The Iraqi security forces discovered the makeshift prison during a search operation in the previously militant-held town on Monday.
Residents and witnesses said the site had been used by the group to lock up a large number of residents and opponents. They also recalled witnessing dozens of men being driven by the group to the prison in pickup trucks.
"This is a prison where the residents of the city who rose up against the Daesh were kept. They gathered the men who were part of the movement and others who were not, all the families, they hit them and forced them to come here, to this place," Reuters quoted Riyad Ahmad Thaer, a resident of Hammam al-Alil as saying.
The developments come a day after Iraqi forces completely retook control of the town of Hammam al-Alil.
Iraqi forces however on Monday continued to search the town for Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and any remaining militants.
Meanwhile, residents of Mosul and nearby villages said the Daesh militant group has been using civilians as human shields against the airstrikes and military operations of the Iraqi troops.
UN human rights spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said in late October that Daesh terrorists had abducted tens of thousands of civilians from near Mosul to use them as human shields.
On October 17, Iraqi army soldiers, backed by volunteer fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched an operation to retake Mosul, a strategic city in northern Iraq, from Daesh.
The Iraqi troops managed to enter Mosul’s limits last week for the first time since June 2014, when the city fell to Daesh amid its campaign in northern and western Iraq.
So far, a large number of the villages and districts surrounding the city have been purged of the militants.
