The UN refugee agency said ISIL Takfiri terrorists have reportedly captured up to 3,000 fleeing villagers in northern Iraq.

The UN refugee agency said ISIL Takfiri terrorists have reportedly captured up to 3,000 fleeing villagers in northern Iraq.

In its daily report on events in Iraq, UNHCR said on Friday that 12 of the captives were thought to had been executed by ISIL.

"UNHCR has received reports that ISIL captured on 4 August up to 3,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) from villages in Hawiga district in Kirkuk governorate trying to flee to Kirkuk city," UNHCR said.

"Reportedly, 12 of the IDPs have been killed in captivity."

The villagers were on the run from fighting in Kirkuk province and seeking safety in the nearby city of the same name, a UN spokesman also told DPA news agency.

The oil-rich Kirkuk province is divided between areas mainly controlled by the Kurdish autonomous region and areas held by ISIL.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of the capital, Baghdad, in 2014, but has since lost ground to Iraqi forces.

The terrorist group has responded to the battlefield setbacks by striking civilians, and experts have warned that there may be further attacks as it continues to lose ground.