At least 50 Christian families fled the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday after a wave of killings targeting the Iraqi minority, a security source said on Friday.

"Some 25 families fled Mosul on Wednesday followed by 50 families on Thursday for the fear of being targeted by armed groups," a local security source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

According to Khaled Abdel-Sattar, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in the area, five Christians have been killed in the past few days.

Iraqi Christians are one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Large parts of the Iraqi Christian community emigrated to Syria and Jordan following the US-led invasion.

Christian groups have also recently protested the removal of article 50 of the provincial elections law, which passed through the Iraqi parliament last week. The article had guaranteed Christians certain rights of representation in local assemblies.

Separately, the US forces in Iraq announced on its website the arrest of eight militants in Mosul.

Mosul is located some 400 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.