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The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition
 Kurd government fingered for expelling Yezidi families Baghdad (IraqiNews.com): Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of expelling Yezidi families from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region to Sinjar as their relatives joined al-Hashd al-Shaabi. The KRG had expelled at least four Yezidi families and threatened others since June because their relatives’ joined al-Hashd al-Shaabi, HRW said on Sunday. HRW stressed that the expulsion of Yezidi families from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region because a relative joined al-Hashd al-Shaabi ‘amounts to collective punishment in violation of international law’. Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Kurdistan Regional Government authorities should stop expelling Yezidi families because of their relatives’ actions, a form of collective punishment,” “These displaced families have the right not to be forcibly returned to their still-damaged home villages,” she added. The HRW said that it spoke to three Yezidi commanders who said that Yezidi forces had been merged into al-Hashd al-Shaabi under the name Yezidi Brigades Kata’ib Ezidkhan, and control four areas in Sinjar. In 2016, HRW had documented cases in which the KRG’s security forces, Asayish, force families to leave the camps and areas in and around Dohuk and threatened to expel others from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region after knowing that their children had joined forces affiliated with the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sinjar. ISIS lets up on the beatings Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State has raised the ban on tackling the issue of the survival of the group’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , in west of Mosul. “IS militants has lifted the ban on Baghdadi’s murder in Tal Afar town, located west Mosul, which indicates an indirect intention to confirm the news on his death in an airstrike few weeks ago in Syria,” a local source from Nineveh province, told AlSumaria News. “The group canceled the punishment of 50 lashes over publicly tackles Baghdadi’s survival, a decision that was taken few days ago,” the source added indicating silence on Baghdadi’s death. “However, the recent decisions show that the leaders in Tal Afar received important information that made them cancel the ban.” Earlier this month after the group ordered the 50 lashes punishment, the militans burnt a top leader to death in Tal Afar over charges of “stirring sedition” through suggesting Baghdadi’s possible demise during a Friday prayer sermon. On Friday, the group reportedly distributed brief statement in Tal Afar, vowing to post a new audio recording for its leader to show he is still alive. News reports circulated over the past few weeks have claimed that Baghdadi was killed in an airstrike in Syria. ISIS kidnaps civilians in Mosul Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State (IS) has detained a number of civilians in the Old City of Mosul, while stressed that security forces are close to liberate the whole city, Mawazin News reported, citing statement by Khalaf al-Hadidi, a provincial council member in Nineveh. “The security forces are continuing to move towards the liberation of the whole Mosul, especially the Old City in western Mosul,” al-Hadidi said. “Russian and Afghan members belong to the IS are detaining a number of hostages to tackle the advance of the security forces towards its targets,” he added. On another note, Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, arrived to the Nineveh Operations Headquarters to meet security leaders. Abadi congratulated Iraqi forces and citizens for victory over Islamic State militants who had occupied Iraq’s second largest city for three years. The Prime Minister’s media office said he congratulated “the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people for the great victory”. State TV aired scenes of the Prime Minister’s arrival at Nineveh Operations Command’s office in the city in preparation for a press conference. The long-awaited victory in Mosul ends an eight-month campaign, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces, which has displaced more than 900.000 civilians. It also means an effective collapse of the Islamic State’s self-styled “caliphate” declared from Mosul’s Old City by the group’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Posted by: badanov 2017-07-10 |
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