Mosul

Iraq's Joint Operation Command did not give CNN any numbers Saturday, saying it was not obliged to publish casualty figures while the battle against ISIS was ongoing.

But it warned in a statement that "the dissemination of false and fabricated news" could help ISIS as the extremist group seeks to stop Iraqi forces retaking Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and surrounding areas.

"We are going to Mosul to free them from ISIS," Haider al-Abadi told a reporter for state-run Iraqiya TV at the Qayyara airbase south of the city.

He also had a message for the estimated 5,000 ISIS militants holed up in the city: "There is no way to escape, either surrender or die."

He urged the city's beleaguered residents, who have suffered under the ISIS yoke since June 2014, to stay indoors. He also said they should resist ISIS-propogated rumors, and do what they can to prevent ISIS from destroying the city's infrastructure.

The terror group carried out the mass killings Wednesday, punishing people who had defied its orders, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights arm told CNN.

"ISIS executed 42 civilians in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul. Also on Wednesday ISIS executed 190 former Iraqi security forces for refusing to join them, in the Al Ghazlani base near Mosul," said Ravina Shamdasani of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Another 24 former Iraqi security forces officers were reportedly killed Tuesday, the office said.