The Torturers Taking On ISIS In Fallujah
Shia militias have allegedly killed 50 fleeing civilians and kidnapped 640 more.
NEAR FALLUJAH — Twenty-three days after the Iraqi security forces started a major operation aiming to retake besieged Fallujah, the forces are still fighting to control the first neighborhood of the Anbar city.
Much of the murkiness surrounding the battle to expel ISIS from Fallujah, which lies 64 kilometers to the west of Baghdad and has long been a cynosure of the Sunni insurgency, has to do with who, exactly, is doing the fighting. And that’s a question that touches on Iraq’s ever-parlous sectarianism.
According to an official investigation carried out by the Anbar governorate, at least 49 people have been killed by Shia militias in two towns: Saqlawiyah, 8 kilometers northwest of Fallujah, and Al-Karmah, 16 kilometers northeast of the city. Additionally, 643 men have been declared missing between June 3 and June 5. The investigation records that have been signed by Sohaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province, also state that “all detainees have been subject to severe collective torture.” Iraq’s Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi tweeted, ”Harassment of IDPs is a betrayal of the sacrifices of our brave forces’ liberation operations to expel Daesh [ISIS] from Iraq.”
Another major obstacle in the forward advance on Fallujah has been the high number of civilians still trapped inside the city. According to Mayor al-Esawi, between 80,000 to 90,000 of them are being held as human shields by ISIS. Al-Esawi’s office said that “protecting civilians and avoiding any danger
fine the original http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/15/the-torturers-taking-on-isis-in-fallujah.html
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