At least 60 people were reportedly shot dead last week and some of their bodies were hung from electric poles by members of the Islamic State group in Mosul. According to United Nations, they were accused of collaborating with Iraqi troops.

While around 40 men were killed on Tuesday, 20 others were executed at the Ghabat Military Base in northern Mosul on Wednesday. “On Tuesday, ISIS reportedly shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul city after accusing them of ‘treason and collaboration’ with the Iraqi Security Forces. The victims were marked in red with the words: ‘traitors and agents of the ISF’,” UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told AFP.

The UN office said that most of them were slaughtered for leaking information. However, some were killed for other reasons too. One 27-year-old man was shot dead for using a mobile phone. The order for the killings reportedly came from courts established by Islamic State militants. The UN human rights panel also said that ISIS had deployed teenagers to carry out the executions. It said that the group had released a video on Wednesday in which children were seen killing four people for spying.

There have also been reports of atrocities carried out by government forces in the region. Amnesty International on Thursday said that men clad in Iraqi federal police uniforms killed six residents of south Mosul. They were executed on the suspicion of having links with the Islamic State group, reported BBC.

This comes as Iraqi forces are closing in on the city of Mosul, which the militant group has held since 2014. The city is the Islamic State group’s last major stronghold in the country, and the international fraternity has express confidence that overpowering them would deal a strong blow to their operations.