Targeting civilians `a war crime'

Insurgent in Iraq are committing war crimes by targeting civilians in mass killings, abductions and beheadings, and some of these abuses may constitute crimes against humanity, a human rights group said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch, which often has criticized alleged abuses by US forces in Iraq, turned its attention in its latest report to insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunnah, which have repeatedly claimed responsibility for powerful car bombs and suicide bombs in mosques, markets, bus stations and other civilian areas in Iraq, a mostly Muslim country.

"People we have spoken with in the Middle East are increasingly repulsed by the behavior of insurgent groups in Iraq, even if they support a withdrawal of US troops," said Sara Leah Whitson, the region's Human Rights Watch director.

"There are no justifications for targeting civilians, in Iraq or anywhere else," Whitson said. "Armed groups as well as governments must respect the laws of war."

Iraq's have convicted some insurgents, but there is no sign of a major push for an international war crimes trial against the militants, even if Iraq's most feared and wanted one, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is caught.

The interim government is focusing on what it considers a higher-priority case: the trial of Saddam Hussein for alleged war crimes during his time in power. Saddam's first trial is due to begin Oct. 19, and if convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

In the meantime, Iraqi and US forces are trying to put down the insurgency amid stepped up attacks ahead of an Oct. 15 vote on a new constitution.

Al-Qaeda Iraq has declared "all-out war" on Shiites, and since the Shiite-majority government took power in Iraq on April 28, suicide bombers have killed at least 1,345 people, according to an AP count. At least 1,935 US servicemen also have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003. Last week alone, Sunni insurgents hit markets in two Shiite towns in Iraq with brutal car bombings that killed more than 110 people, one-fifth of them women and children.

The Sunni-led militant groups often target Shiites in an apparent effort to set off a sectarian civil war.

In its report, Human Rights Watch listed 73 insurgent attacks between August 2003 and Sept. 17 this year in which at least 10 civilians were killed -- with the highest number of Sept. 14-15 when a series of car bombs in Baghdad killed nearly 200.

The group dismisses the arguments that insurgent groups and their supporters often use to justify attacks on civilians -- including that their victims are legitimate targets because they support foreign forces in Iraq. Those rationales "have no basis in international law, which requires the protection of any civilian who is not actively participating in the hostilities."

The laws of war do not outlaw insurgent groups or ban attacks on legitimate military targets, but they do oblige all forces in a conflict to protect civilians and other non-combattants, it said.

Al-Qaeda Iraq and Ansar al-Sunnah have repeatedly boasted about conducting mass killings with suicide car bombs in public places, acts that "are war crimes and in some cases may constitute crimes against humanity, which are defined as serious crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population," Human Rights Watch said.

Iraq's have prosecuted some suspected insurgents, including Ayman Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam's, who was sentenced last month to life in prison for funding Iraq's insurgency and bomb-making. About 12,300 detainees also are being held without charge at US prisons in Iraq such as the notorious Abu Ghraib one on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Crimes humanity are prosecutable in any court in the world, Human Rights Watch said. The International Criminal Court -- the tribunal in The Hague that prosecutes war crimes worldwide -- can try cases of war crimes when the nation where they occured they do not. However, Iraq has not signed or ratified the court's treaty, so the court has no jurisdiction there. Iraq considered joining the court, but Washington's opposition to the ICC appeared to quash that option.

The US fiercely opposes the International Criminal Court, which 99 nations have ratified.