As US-backed forces are on the brink of liberating Mosul in northern Iraq, reports are emerging that the advancing allied forces are executing captured ISIS fighters. Some ISIS jihadists are killed in front lines, while others are executed after being interrogated. The information comes from a Mosul-based commander who spoke to Integrated Regional Information Networks, a non-profit media site that reports on conflict zones. Extrajudicial killings of ISIS fighters have been emerging pretty much since the start of the offensive on Mosul. The Islamist militants have used barbaric methods to subdue the local population in Mosul, with executions of many accused of collaborating with the Iraqi army, and once they are captured the retribution they face by the US-backed local forces is extremely harsh. Still, “killing captured combatants or civilians is a war crime, as is the mutilation of corpses,” Belkis Wille, a Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher in Iraq, told IRIN.
But investigating abuse is not a priority in Iraq at the moment. Some executions are apparently being overseen – or at least condoned – by senior military personnel.