“Militiamen deliberately destroyed several hundred civilian buildings with no apparent military reason after the withdrawal of the extremist armed group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, from the area,” HRW said in a press release promoting the report.
The 60-page report, “Ruinous Aftermath: Militia Abuses Following Iraq’s Recapture of Tikrit,” used satellite imagery to confirm eyewitness accounts.
After ISIS fled Tikrit, “Hizbollah Battalions and League of Righteous forces, two of the largely [Shiite] pro-government militias, abducted more than 200 Sunni residents, including children, near al-Dur, south of Tikrit,” according to the release. “At least 160 of those abducted remain unaccounted for.”
In addition to being an ISIS stronghold, Tikrit, the capital of Salahadin province, was the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, who frequently targeted and killed Shiites.
Before the beginning of the Tikrit campaign, Shiite militia leaders swore to avenge a June 2014 ISIS massacre of at least 770 Shiite military cadets at the Camp Speicher facility near Tikrit, according to HRW. This may have accounted for the Shiites’ harsh tactics towards Tikrit’s Sunni residents.
HRW said Shiite militias were also responsible for the extrajudicial killings of suspected ISIS prisoners, and that a police officer had seen suspects gunned down after surrendering. Reuters journalists in Tikrit saw another suspected ISIS fighter stabbed to death by a federal police officer.
Sheikh Malik Shahhab, a prominent businessman and brother of al-Dur’s mayor, according to the report told HRW he overheard a Shiite fighter say, “We burned and destroyed al-Dur, because they (the residents) are ISIS and Baathists.”
“Iraqi authorities need to discipline and hold accountable the out-of-control militias laying waste to Sunni homes and shops after driving ISIS out,” Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said in the report. “Abusive militias and their commanders acting with impunity undermine the campaign against ISIS and put all civilians at greater risk.”
The Shiite militias cited by HRW in the report are part of the Hashd al-Shaabi, the Arabic term for “Popular Mobilization Units,” or PMUs. The PMU’s were stood up by a fatwa called by Iraq’s Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in June 2014 following the regular Iraqi army’s total failure to halt ISIS’ blitz of western and northern Iraq. The PMUs receive equipment and salaries from the central government. They have also received support and training from Iran.
HRW in its report called on the US and Iran, the two biggest supporters of the central Iraqi government, to hold the PMUs accountable for their actions and numerous human rights abuses.
“As the biggest contributors to Iraq’s military and security forces, the US and Iran should speak out against militia abuses and make clear that the government is responsible for stopping these abuses and holding those responsible accountable, regardless of rank,” HRW said. “All countries providing military assistance to Iraq should strengthen end-use monitoring of equipment and human rights vetting of recipients, including by publicly reporting on investigations into misuse of assistance and steps taken to address it.”
“These states should support establishing centralized command and control with civilian oversight over the militias and hold those responsible for laws of war violations accountable,” it continued. “Failure by Iraq to do so within one year should lead to suspensions of assistance commensurate with Iraq’s failure to comply.”
