Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Thursday accused [press release] members of the Iraqi police force of torturing and unlawfully killing villagers during an operation to liberate Mosul from Islamic State (IS) forces. AI found [CNN report] that “men in Federal Police uniform[s] carried out multiple unlawful killings, apprehending and then deliberately killing in cold blood residents in villages south of Mosul.” The report found that some of these residents were tortured before being shot “execution-style.” The Iraqi Federal Police have denied such actions and there is no proof that these med were actual police forces and not just men in Iraqi police uniforms. AI found that 10 mean and a 16-year-old boy were tortured after turning themselves over to the group. At least six of these individuals have been found executed.

Iraq has recently faced much criticism for its forces committing war crimes and abuses the rights of its people. In October AI reported that the Iraqi government and paramilitary forces committed war crimes [JURIST report] and human rights abuses. AI found that the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government were detaining internally displaced persons for no reason. AI said that these individuals faces abduction, torture and execution. In September the UN said that civilians [JURIST report] bear the biggest brunt of terrorism and violence in Iraq, reporting that civilians “accounted for more than two-thirds of those killed or injured in the month of August.” In August Human Rights Watch reported that Iraqi militias are recruiting children [JURIST report] from at least one civilian camp of displaced persons in the region of Kurdistan. Earlier in August the UN issued a report detailing the “terrible atrocities” [JURIST report] committed by the IS against the Yezidi people and other ethnic and religious groups in Iraq.