Issued Thursday, the Amnesty report highlights a central fear that the Iraqi government is essentially deputizing the militias in the fight against the Islamic State. Members of the militias were responsible for thousands of deaths in the years-long insurgency that came after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Amnesty International said it has evidence the militias, known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi, have been given everything from tanks and combat vehicles to grenade launchers and a large number of small arms. Amnesty said those weapons, manufactured in the United States and elsewhere and originally given to the Iraqi government, are now being used by the militias to carry out extrajudicial killings and revenge attacks against civilians under the guise of working with the Iraqi army to retake Mosul, the last major city controlled by the Islamic State. "International arms suppliers, including the U.S.A., European countries, Russia and Iran, must wake up to the fact that all arms transfers to Iraq carry a real risk of ending up in the hands of militia groups with long histories of human rights violations," said Patrick Wilcken, an Amnesty researcher.
Iraqi government officials and a spokesman for the militias denied the report, saying the two groups have abided by international law and proven reliable partners in the fight against the Islamic State. "Whatever is circulated across malicious media about violations is untrue," militia spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi said during a press conference. "The priority for al-Hashd al-Shaabi is to protect civilians, and we shall chase [the Islamic State] to the last spot of Mosul and based on directives from the supreme commander of the armed forces."
Amnesty International report: Shiite militias using U.S. weapons for war crimes
Iraqi-led forces trying to retake Mosul from ISIS have made significant gains after seizing the city's university, a government complex and parts of the east bank of the Tigris River, Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi of the Iraqi counterterrorism forces said Saturday. Hundreds of ISIS militants were reportedly killed during Friday's advance, which came as Iraqi counterterrorism forces also announced that troops had made it Mosul's Second Bridge on the river's east bank. Counterterror forces this week reached the east bank of the Tigris for the first time since the large-scale military operation to reclaim Mosul began in October. ISIS seized control of the city, now its last major stronghold in Iraq, in 2014.
Iraqi forces aim to retake Mosul
The latest phase in the bid to retake Mosul has advanced more quickly than expected, partly because thousands of Iraqi federal police joined coalition troops that included the Iraqi army, counterterror forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite-led paramilitaries. The new government complex in eastern Mosul as well as several Mosul University buildings had at one time been a headquarters and killing ground for ISIS fighters. Iraqi forces discovered large amounts of suspected chemical substances and "a bomb factory" at the university, a strategic base for militants, according to Sabah al Numan, spokesman for Iraqi counterterrorism forces. The materials were being tested.
CNN walks through a city destroyed by ISIS
Additionally, Iraqi federal police announced Saturday that intelligence information had led them to a factory used to produce chemical and toxic material in explosives. They discovered the facility Friday night in al-Bir, about 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of Mosul. ISIS militants have used chemical weapons such as mustard gas in the past, according Iraqi and US officials. By Friday, ISIS had destroyed all five bridges crossing the Tigris River in Mosul, an attempt to slow the advance of Iraqi troops toward the city's western side, according to Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, commander of Iraqi forces in Nineveh province.
The unnamed victims of terror
The Tigris divides the eastern and western parts of the city; Iraqi-led forces have not crossed into or started any operations in western Mosul. The bridges had already been damaged in airstrikes by the US-led coalition in recent weeks. In previous instances where ISIS took out bridges, Iraqi forces built temporary or floating structures, slowing down troops but not deterring their advance. Saadi of the counterterrorism forces told CNN this week that night raids have been effective against ISIS headquarters and stretches of eastern Mosul. US Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led operation against ISIS, said in a video conference Tuesday that Iraqi forces were making progress with the assistance of coalition airstrikes.
Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces seize university, government complex from ISIS - CNN.com
The army's 9th Armoured Division was within a kilometer of Mosul's "Syria Gate", the northwestern entrance of the city, a general from the unit told Reuters by telephone. "We effectively control the road, it is in our sight," he said. Mosul residents said they had not been able to travel on the highway that begins at the "Syria Gate" since Tuesday.
An Iraqi Special Forces soldier moves through a hole as he searches for Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq.
The road links Mosul to Tal Afar, another Islamic State stronghold 60 km (40 miles) to the west, and then to the Syrian border. Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on Feb. 19.
If they defeat Islamic State in Mosul, that would crush the Iraq wing of the caliphate declared by the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. The U.S. commander in Iraq has said he believes U.S.-backed forces will recapture both Mosul and Raqqa, Islamic State's Syria stronghold in neighboring Syria, within six months.
Iraqi army controls main roads out of Mosul, trapping Islamic State
The officer pulled a teenager onto a raised platform and asked the group if he belonged to Islamic State (IS). Muffled groans were followed by nods and muttered comments. The youth was then dragged off to a pickup truck and his arms tied behind his back. He confessed to a three-month membership in IS and spending a week in a training camp, but said he had only been a cook and never carried a weapon.
As growing numbers of residents flee fighting between insurgents and Iraqi military forces
Iraqi Special Operations Forces arrest a person suspected of belonging to Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq
seeking to recapture the IS-held western half of Iraq's second largest city, security units have been transporting civilians to government-run camps and weeding out IS infiltrators.
Just over a week into the offensive on the militants' last urban bastion in Iraq, some 14,000 inhabitants have slipped out of the city, trekking through stony desert. Most are women, children and elderly but there are also hundreds of young men who must pass screening by the security forces.
All are hungry and thirsty after three months under a virtual siege of western districts by Iraqi forces. Some have been wounded in the crossfire of a battle that could deal a hammer blow to Islamic State's territorial ambitions. Up to 400,000 people may have to leave their homes during the new U.S.-backed offensive launched this month after Iraqi forces finished clearing districts east of the Tigris River that cleaves the city in Iraq's far north.
The intelligence officer, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said he had extracted seven suspected Islamic State members on Sunday, the first day of mass displacement from western Mosul. Reuters saw four more in detention on Monday. "The fighters don't come out," he said. Those who were loyal to the jihadist movement but played a less public, mainly non-combatant role are more likely to try to slip through the dragnet, the intelligence officer added.
Security forces keep on hand some local Mosul inhabitants they refer to as "sources" to help them identify suspects. One of the "sources", a wiry young man wearing a green balaclava to shield his identity, stood with intelligence officers as a new batch of men handed over their identification to be checked against a computer database.
TELLTALE BEHAVIOUR
