Iraqi forces tortured and killed villagers near Mosul

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said yesterday that he holds worldwide human rights organisation Amnesty global responsible for “endangering the security” of Mosul’s citizens by publishing “false information” regarding his forces conducting unlawful killings in areas around the city.

The Mosul offensive began October 17, aimed at retaking Iraq’s second-biggest city after nearly 2½ years of IS control.

Amnesty gathered evidence of the alleged killings on a visit to villages south of Mosul in the al-Shura and al-Qayyara sub-districts. “They are kept in identified facilities”, Zebari said.

Using the Arabic acronym for the militant group, he added: “I can not be exact about the number because we are still investigating …”

Kubis also said he has received credible reports of IS militants forcing tens of thousands of civilians to relocate inside Mosul, for use as human shields.

Islamic State’s Hisba force is a morality police unit which imposes the Sunni jihadists’ interpretation of Islamic behaviour.

They added that abducted women had been “distributed” to fighters and told others they would be used to accompany convoys. It uncovered bones, decomposed bodies and scraps of clothing and plastic, the Associated Press reported.

She also said that a mass grave in Hamman al-Alil containing over 100 bodies was one of several IS “killing grounds”, with bodies dumped in various locations.

Kurdish forces on Tuesday said they fully cleared the strategic town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, of its remaining Islamic State fighters, a day after they managed to push into the town after weeks of heavy resistance from Islamic State. But troops have entered only a handful of neighbourhoods in the east of the city.

Most said that they did not know where the men are being held and all of them said that the men have not been able to contact them while in detention.

Speaking on Wednesday, Jan Kubis, the UN’s head of operations in Iraq, said that Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces were making steady progress towards liberating the city, while trying to minimise civilian casualties.

A spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry also denied there had been any violations and said Iraqi forces respect human rights and global law.

“The peshmerga forces liberated almost 800 sq km and played a critical role in opening a safe corridor for the Iraqi forces to advance on Mosul …”