[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Wednesday released a report [text] documenting the destruction of civilian property by Iraqi security forces, pro-government militias and volunteer fighters after the forces successfully forced Islamic State (IS) fighters to retreat from the town of Amerli and surrounding areas last September. According to HRW, this targeting of civilians marks a violation of the laws of war. The report states that following the end of the operations to remove IS from Amerli, forces and militias carried out raids on Sunni villages and neighborhoods around Amerli in Salah al-Din and Kirkuk provinces. During these raids, according to the report, forces looted the possessions of civilians who had fled the fighting, burned homes and businesses of the area’s Sunni residents and destroyed individual buildings or whole villages through the use of explosives and heavy equipment. Many men of fighting age have also been reported missing from the area, with 11 labeled by HRW as abducted in the course of the government’s operation. Through its report, HRW called upon [HRW report] the Iraqi government to take immediate steps to protect civilians where fighting occurs and to reign in the militias, upon the US and other countries fighting against IS to ensure that military operations do not encourage further abuses and upon the UN to publicly document the offenses against civilians.

These offenses follow the end of a three month siege of Amerli by IS. IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has caused increasing international alarm over its human rights abuses [JURIST report] since its insurgence into Syria and Iraq in 2013. Last month the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights jointly released a report [JURIST report] detailing violations against Iraqi civilians under the spread of Islamic State. Also in February IS led suicide bombings in eastern Libya, killing at least 40 people [JURIST report] and injuring 70 more. IS said this was the group’s way of retaliating against Egyptian airstrikes protesting the IS presence in Northern Africa. In December the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [official website] reported that the IS executed [JURIST report] 1,878 people in Syria between June and December. February’s suicide bombings indicate that the number of executions continues to increase. That month the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned [JURIST report] the groups beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Syria. The Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] stated in November that the ICC is contemplating bringing war crimes [JURIST report] charges against IS jihadist fighters.