As part of its brutal campaign against northern Iraq’s Yezidi minority, the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity when it sabotaged irrigation wells and destroyed other farming infrastructure, Amnesty International said in a new report. A year after Iraq’s government declared military victory over IS, Dead Land: […]
By John Lee. An Iraqi government block on internet access is reportedly costing the country $40 million per day in lost business, sales and opportunities. The estimate is from the COST tool, based on the Brookings Institution economic impact methodology for internet shutdowns, using data collected by the NetBlocks internet shutdown observatory in collaboration with […]
By Amnesty International. Internet Cut to Stop Protesters Posting Images of Security Force Attacks Amnesty International has learned that the Iraqi authorities have disabled internet access shortly before the security forces have attacked - and in some cases killed - people protesting over unemployment and inadequate government services across the south of the country. In […]
Women and children with perceived ties to IS denied aid, sexually exploited and trapped in camps Iraqi women and children with perceived ties to the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) are being denied humanitarian aid and prevented from returning to their homes, with an alarming number of women subjected to sexual violence, […]
From Amnesty International. Satellite images, videos, photos and dozens of testimonies collected by Amnesty International show that civilians were forced to flee their homes after fierce clashes erupted between Iraqi government forces, supported by the Popular Mobilization Units, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq’s multi-ethnic city of Tuz Khurmatu on 16 October 2017. Residents reported […]
Responding to the news that at least 42 people were executed in Iraq today on “terrorism” charges, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International said: “Today’s mass execution is a shocking display of the Iraqi authorities’ resort to the death penalty to try to show they are responding to security threats. “There can […]
The US Army failed to keep tabs on more than $1 billion worth of arms and other military equipment in Iraq and Kuwait according to a now declassified Department of Defense (DoD) audit, obtained by Amnesty International following Freedom of Information requests. The government audit, from September 2016, reveals that the DoD “did not have […]
According to a report from Amnesty International, Iraqi government forces, paramilitary militias and the armed group Islamic State (IS) committed war crimes, other violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses in the internal armed conflict. IS fighters carried out execution-style killings targeting opponents and civilians fleeing IS-held territory, raped and otherwise tortured captives, […]
Amnesty International has condemned the mass execution of 31 men in Iraq for their alleged role in mass killings in 2014, describing it as "further proof of the Iraqi authority’s blatant disregard for human rights and misguided use of the death penalty in the name of security." Local authorities confirmed to Amnesty International that they […]
Kurdish authorities bulldoze homes and banish hundreds of Arabs from Kirkuk Kurdish authorities have carried out a wave of attacks, demolishing the homes and driving out hundreds of Arabs from Kirkuk, as apparent revenge for an attack carried out by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) on 21 October, said Amnesty International […]
The use of white phosphorus around the city of Mosul could pose a deadly risk to civilians fleeing the fighting in the coming days and weeks, Amnesty International has said. The organization received credible witness and photographic evidence of white phosphorus projectiles fired over an area north of the village of Karemlesh, about 20 kilometres […]
Yezidi survivors of horrific abuse in IS captivity neglected by international community Yezidi women and girls who have been enslaved, raped beaten and otherwise tortured by the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) are being failed by a lack of adequate support from the international community, said Amnesty International today. Researchers from the organization […]
