‘Iraq, allies committed war crimes in Mosul’

Amnesty International said on Tuesday it had identified a pattern of attacks by Iraqi forces and the US-led military coalition backing them in the battle for Mosul that violated international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.

The rights group said in a report that the Islamic State militant group had flagrantly violated that same law by deliberately putting civilians in harm’s way to shield their fighters and impede the advance of Iraqi and coalition forces.

Much of Mosul has been destroyed in grinding street-tostreet fighting, thousands of civilians have been killed and nearly a million people fled their homes, according to the United Nations.

Amnesty said Iraqi forces and the coalition carried out a series of unlawful attacks in west Mosul since January.

“Even in attacks that seem to have struck their intended military target, the use of unsuitable weapons or failure to take other necessary precautions resulted in needless loss of civilian lives and in some cases appears to have constituted disproportionate attacks,” the report said.

Neither the Iraqi defence ministry nor coalition officials were immediately available to comment on the Amnesty report.

In addition to calling for an independent commission, Amnesty published a series of recommendations for the Iraqi authorities including establishing a compensation programme for civilians.