- Title: Amnesty says Iraq and allies violated international law in Mosul battle
- Date: 11th July 2017
- Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JULY 11, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS INTERIORS OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OFFICE SIGN READING (Arabic/English): "AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA" (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, NICOLETTE WALDMAN, SAYING: "Amnesty International conducted the research for this report between March and May 2017, and during that time we visited West Mosul, East Mosul, and then we also interviewed 151 West Mosul residents, who had recently fled the fighting, so either days or weeks before." VARIOUS OF PAINTING OF WORLD MAP WITH KEYWORDS WRITTEN OVER EACH PART OF THE WORLD (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, NICOLETTE WALDMAN, SAYING: "Amnesty International found that both ISIS as well as Iraqi and coalition forces inflicted massive harm on civilians during the battle for West Mosul, on the one hand ISIS was systematically moving thousands of civilians into the fighting and then they trapped them there, and then on the other hand Iraqi and coalition forces bombarded these same areas with a relentless series of attacks that killed and injured thousands of civilians." BANNER READING (English): "AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL" WALDMAN SITTING IN OFFICE, SPEAKING TO SOMEONE USING LAPTOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, NICOLETTE WALDMAN, SAYING: "The final message of the report is that civilians went through a horrific ordeal, they really are in a catastrophe right now and hundreds of thousands have fled from Mosul, they deserve to have the violations that were carried out against them to be recognised, this is the first thing we are calling for, is public recognition, and then to have an independent commission look into which violations were committed and determine who might be responsible for those violations, who might be responsible for war crimes."
- Embargoed: 25th July 2017 12:13
- Keywords: Mosul fight Amnesty International Report on Mosul Civilians Violation International Law breached war crime
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- City: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0016P9WGG7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Amnesty International said on Tuesday (July 11) that it had identified a pattern of attacks by Iraqi forces, and the U.S.-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.
Nicolette Waldman, co-researcher and co-author of the report told Reuters that the Amnesty team conducted the research with families who had recently come out of the fighting.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in Mosul on Monday, three years after Islamic State seized the city and made it the stronghold of a "caliphate" they said would take over the world.
A 100,000-strong alliance of Iraqi government units, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shi'ite militias had launched the offensive in October, with key air and ground support from the international coalition. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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