Iraqis fear families pay for ISIS sins
They say militant group forced their loved ones to fight
As Iraqi forces near the liberation of Mosul from the Islamic State, thousands of families fear reprisals against relatives forced to serve on behalf of the militants.
USA TODAY spoke to several families who said their husbands or sons were trained by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, because of desperation or coercion.
Asia Khalaf, who stays with her two children in the Jeddah refugee camp about 60 miles southwest of here, said her husband, who is under arrest, joined the Islamic State because he could not earn any money as a carpenter after the militants arrived.
“Our children were often hungry,” Khalaf said.
Her husband trained with ISIS for a month, but the militants rarely gave him anything to do.
“He mostly sat at home doing nothing,” Khalaf said.
He was arrested in February by Iraqi militias after the family escaped from their village.
Wafa Abdullah, who is also in the Jeddah camp, said her teenage son was “brainwashed” by ISIS, then received training, though she swore he was not in- volved in any violent actions and eventually left ISIS to hide with different relatives. He is under arrest by the Iraqi army.
Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in western Mosul, the last major stronghold in Iraq for the Islamic State, which stormed the country in 2014. Many residents who managed to flee said the militants use civilians as human shields and threaten torture or death for anyone who defies their orders.
Even so, calls mount for harsh punishment or forced displacement for family members with suspected or confirmed ties to the militant group, whether their cooperation was voluntary or
“He mostly sat at home doing nothing.” Asia Khalaf, whose husband trained with the Islamic State
coerced.
Some Iraqis cite tribal law, in which families share a relative’s guilt.
“Even women and children of terrorists should be killed, or ISIS will come back,” said Wathban Rammah, head of the council of reunification of Mosul tribes. “We need to fully destroy ISIS and their families — the tribes should act on this.”
Nazhan Sakhar, leader of a south Mosul militia group, said only families that executed or surrendered their terrorist sons should be welcome. Others should be banished or confined to restricted areas.
Opponents of that policy caution against guilt by association and point to evidence that innocent Iraqis have been arrested and interrogated as suspected militants.
“The conflict will not settle if everyone continues to hope that one day he will catch his enemy and get revenge,” said Saieb Gailani, a former deputy minister of health and public policy adviser to the Iraqi Parliament. “If there is more aggressive action, civilians will be paying the price.”
Iraqi law penalizes people directly responsible for a crime. By tribal law, the penalty could mean extrajudicial punishment or banishment from a certain area for many generations.
In the case of relatives who helped the Islamic State, this guilt by association can apply to families “who eat from the same plate” or entire tribes, regardless of how the militant’s relatives felt about their actions.
“In some small towns, the tribes are preventing other tribes from returning because some of their members were with ISIS,” Gailani said.
Haider Ibrahimi, executive director of Sanad, a community reconciliation organization, said some politicians push to enshrine such traditions into law. “It would be a disaster,” Ibrahimi said. “It will cause massive displacement, and the government will not have capacity to deal with it.”
Few Islamic State suspects have been through a full court procedure, but thousands are in pretrial detention.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups said the hunt for Islamic State suspects is imperfect and snares many innocent people.
Recently published video by an Iraqi photographer purportedly shows Iraq’s emergency response division torturing civilians and forcing them to confess. Some were executed.
The elite police division declined to comment.
Suspects are often whipped during interrogation without any proof of guilt, Nihad Pawod, a member of Iraqi army intelli- gence who works with the National Security Service, told USA TODAY.
Mohammed Askar, a tribal militia officer in Mosul, said his group uses force in interrogations but did not give details.
Security forces rely on volunteers to pass along information about suspects, but the informants can be wrong or purposely give false reports.
A dozen families interviewed said male relatives have been arrested by Iraqi or Kurdish forces because of malicious neighbors making false accusations.
Ilham Tara said her husband was arrested despite never being with the Islamic State.
Tara, who is in the Debaga refugee camp outside Irbil, about 50 miles east of Mosul, said she had a dispute with neighbors over water taps in their home in a nearby village and believes the neighbors “got their revenge.”
Mahmood Yasin, staying in the Jeddah camp, said he cannot return to his town outside Mosul because of rumors that some members of his extended family joined ISIS. He said the rumors are not true, but he fears retribution by militias in the area.
“I can’t go home,” he said. “None of us can go.”
“Even women and children of terrorists should be killed, or ISIS will come back. We need to fully destroy ISIS and their families.” Wathban Rammah, head of a Mosul tribal council