Iraqi government forces killed and tortured civilians south of Mosul, rights groups said yesterday, the first such reports of alleged abuse in a US-backed campaign to retake the city from the Islamic State group.
Amnesty International said “up to six” people were found dead last month in the Shura and Qayyara sub-districts, who security forces suspected of ties to the militant group which seized a third of Iraqi territory in 2014.
“Men in federal police uniform have carried out multiple unlawful killings, apprehending and then deliberately killing in cold blood residents in villages south of Mosul,” Amnesty International Beirut office deputy director for research Lynn Maalouf said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 37 men suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State group had been detained by Iraqi and Kurdish forces at checkpoints and in villages, screening centers and camps for displaced people near Mosul and Hawija, further south.
Relatives said they did not know where most of the men were being held and had not been able to contact any of them while they were in detention, the report said.
HRW warned that such conduct “significantly increases the risk of other violations,” including torture.
An Iraqi Ministry of the Interior spokesman denied there had been any violations and said Iraqi forces respect human rights and international law.
A spokesman for the Iraqi federal police could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government denied the HRW report, saying any delays in informing families was due to limited resources.
“Nobody has been kept in unknown facilities. They are kept in identified facilities,” Dindar Zebari said.
The Mosul operation, involving a 100,000-strong alliance of troops, security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite Muslim militias and backed by US-led airstrikes, has entered its fourth week, but has so far gained just a small foothold in the city.
Amnesty International’s report described several incidents in the week commencing Oct. 20 in which separate groups of men were beaten with cables and rifle butts, before being shot to death.
In one case, a man’s head had been severed from his body, it said.
Amnesty said that, without accountability, the alleged abuses risked being repeated in other towns and villages as the Mosul offensive continues.
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