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HRW: Iraq’s pro-govt militias abusing civilians

Abuses perpetrated by militias linked to Iraqi security forces have escalated in recent months, forcing at least 3,000 people in Sunni areas to flee their homes, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. Residents in the Muqdadiyya area of Iraq’s Diyala Province have been barred from returning to their homes, the right group said. Additionally, the international […]

Al Arabiya reports :

Abuses perpetrated by militias linked to Iraqi security forces have escalated in recent months, forcing at least 3,000 people in Sunni areas to flee their homes, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. Residents in the Muqdadiyya area of Iraq’s Diyala Province have been barred from returning to their homes, the right group said. Additionally, the international rights group reports that civilians have been kidnapped and in some instances “summarily executed.”

Allied militias and Iraqi forces began harassing residents in June, shortly after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group took over Iraq’s largest city Mosul, and the abuse escalated around October, residents told HRW. “Iraqi civilians are being hammered by ISIS and then by pro-government militias in areas they seize from ISIS,” Joe Stork, the group’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said.