Iraqi army denies it killed, drove tank over a 'child soldier'

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--The Commander of Nineveh Operations denied that its forces executed and then drove a tank over an alleged ISIS child soldier as could be seen in a video that went viral on social media on Friday.

The video shows some men in military uniform apparently in a desert interrogating a terrified child.

One of the men is heard speaking in Iraqi Arabic saying that the child is an ISIS militant, but the child appeals for his release. "Release me," the child says, "I did nothing."

Then one of the men drags him several meters and puts him in front of a tank.

"How is it Daesh?" a man is heard asking as the child, now lying in front of the tank, appears to have sustained some injuries to both of his legs and is unable to move. The tank driver is ordered to run over him, but first one of the men shoots him multiple times.

The video then shows the child flattened as the tank drives over his body.

The video is not good quality, but it appears to show one of men wearing a military uniform with the badge of a flag possibly bearing the same colors of the Iraqi flag.

Rudaw cannot independently verify the video, nor can it tell where or when the incident was filmed.

The Iraqi military has denied that the soldiers were from the army.

“We confirm here that the video belongs to the Daesh mobs and it becomes clear through analyzing the scene which shows individuals who wear non-military clothes different from that worn by the Iraqi army,” Major General Najim al-Jabouri said in a statement published by the Iraqi War Media Office on Friday night.

“It also becomes clear from the type of the guns as shown in the scene that they are the same guns used by Daesh militants. Also confining the video to a limited area is an attempt to avoid showing the landmarks of the area,” the statement added.

Jabouri said the release of the video comes in the context of what he called “the misleading media,” and called on the media and rights organizations to first verify such videos before making accusations.

The video comes one day after a report by Amnesty International called on the Iraqi government to investigate reports that “fighters wearing Iraqi Federal Police uniforms tortured and extrajudicially executed residents in villages they captured south of Mosul.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in response on Thursday that he holds Amnesty International responsible for “endangering the security” of Mosul citizens by publishing “false information” regarding “unlawful killings” in some liberated areas around the city.

“The truth is that they were local residents who killed Daesh militants,” Abadi said.