LONDON – The Middle East Minister at the British Foreign Office has warned that the international Coalition lined up to expel the Islamic State (ISIS) from its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul will not support military units about which it has human rights “concerns,” including “certain Shia militia units.”
“The coalition goal is to liberate Mosul by expelling Daesh (ISIS) in a way that minimizes the humanitarian impact, civilian casualties and human rights abuses and violations,” Tobias Ellwood, Minister for the Middle East and Africa at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said on Tuesday.
“We have spoken to Coalition partners, including the US and the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government, and have made clear that forces taking Mosul need to respect human rights and laws of armed conflict,” he said in response to a question by Julian Lewis, chairman of the influential House of Commons Defence Committee.
“Ultimately the forces used will be determined by the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government. The Coalition however will not support units which it has concerns about, including certain Shia militia units,” Ellwood said.
In a written question, Lewis had asked Ellwood if he would be asking the United States about “coalition obligations to exclude from forces preparing to expel Daesh from Mosul any militias which are assessed as lacking respect for (a) human rights and (b) the laws of war; and what assessment he has made in such regards of the Shiite militia Hashd al-Shaabi.”
The Hashd al-Shaabi, which is allied with the Iraqi army, has been accused of abuses against Sunni populations in other parts of Iraq that have been liberated from ISIS. For months, there have been growing concerns about retribution and human rights abuses by the Shiite militia against Mosul’s predominantly Sunni population, should the militia take part in the offensive.
On Wednesday, the Kurdish Peshmerga spokesman denied a report that Hashd troops had arrived near Mosul, saying the forces were from the Iraqi army.
Military sources had earlier told Rudaw that heavily armed Hashd troops arrived in the Kurdish town of Shekhan near Mosul late Tuesday night following the deployment of a larger Iraqi army force to the area earlier this week.
Halgurd Hikmat, media director for the Peshmerga, said that report was incorrect.
"The two military units from the Iraqi military who have come to the Shekhan areas do not have anything to do with Hashd al-Shaabi,” Hikmat told Rudaw. “They are not Hashd. They are from the Iraqi army who belong to the central government in Baghdad."
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