URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Udenrigsudvalget 2016-17, Forsvarsudvalget 2016-17
URU Alm.del Bilag 231, FOU Alm.del Bilag 101
Offentligt

AT ANY COST

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International is a global movement of more

than 7 million people who campaign for a world

where human rights are enjoyed by all.

Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights

enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

and other international human rights standards.

We are independent of any government, political

ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded

mainly by our membership and public donations.

Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons

(attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org

Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this

material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence.

First published in 2017

by Amnesty International Ltd

Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street

London WC1X 0DW, UK

Cover photo:

Civilians fleeing from Mosul, Iraq in March 2017 ©Magnum Photos/ Amnesty International

Index: MDE 14/6610/2017

Original language: English

amnesty.org

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

CONTENTS

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. METHODOLOGY

3. BACKGROUND

3.1 LEAD-UP TO THE WEST MOSUL OPERATION

3.2 THE WEST MOSUL OPERATION

4. VIOLATIONS BY IS

4.1 SUMMARY

4.2 FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND HUMAN SHIELDING

4.3 SUMMARY KILLINGS AND PREVENTION OF EVACUATION

4.4 CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED DISPLACEMENT, HUMAN SHIELDING AND PREVENTION OF

EVACUATION

4.3 DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE, FOOD AND WATER

5. VIOLATIONS BY PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES

5.1 SUMMARY

5.2 INDISCRIMINATE, DISPROPORTIONATE AND OTHER UNLAWFUL ATTACKS

5.3 FAILURE TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS IN ATTACK

6. INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND WAR CRIMES

6.1 THE RULES OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

6.2 WAR CRIMES

7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“Our

city is in ruins. They have treated us like we are

absolutely nothing.”

Ayman, west Mosul resident

The battle for west Mosul has caused a civilian catastrophe. Civilians have been ruthlessly exploited by the

armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), which has systematically moved them into zones of conflict,

used them as human shields and prevented them from escaping to safety. They have also been subjected to

relentless and unlawful attacks by Iraqi government forces and members of the US-led coalition. Residents

of west Mosul count themselves lucky if they escape with their lives.

In March and May 2017, Amnesty International visited northern Iraq to research violations of international

humanitarian law and human rights abuses by all sides to the conflict in west Mosul. In visits to west and

east Mosul, as well as to several camps in Ninewa and Erbil governorates hosting people who had fled the

fighting, Amnesty International interviewed 151 west Mosul residents. All of these residents were civilians; 44

were women, 105 were men, and two were under the age of 18. Amnesty International also interviewed

doctors and other medical workers, international and national humanitarian workers, journalists, military and

arms experts and United Nations officials.

On 21 and 22 June 2017, Amnesty International communicated the key findings detailed in this report in

two letters: one addressed to Iraqi Minister of Defence Irfan al-Hayali and the other addressed to US

Secretary of Defense James Mattis. No responses had been received as of 1 July 2017, when this report was

finalized.

Based on its research, which covers events from January to mid-May 2017, Amnesty International

concludes that IS committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Iraqi

government and US-led coalition forces appear to have committed repeated violations of international

humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes.

VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY IS

During the battle for west Mosul, IS has flagrantly violated fundamental rules of international humanitarian

law, including by deliberately putting civilians in harm’s way to shield their fighters and impede the advance

of Iraqi and coalition forces. Beginning in October 2016, IS rounded up thousands of civilians in contested

villages and neighbourhoods and forced them to move directly into zones of conflict in west Mosul. This

systematic campaign of forced displacement allowed IS to use an ever-greater number of civilians as human

shields as their territory contracted. The armed group then prevented civilians from evacuating, in some

cases trapping them inside their homes by welding their doors shut or by rigging the entrances with booby

traps. IS also summarily killed hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women and children as they attempted to

flee and hanged their bodies in public areas.

According to west Mosul resident “Hasan”: “We did not have

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

any options. If you stayed, you would die in your house from the fighting. If you tried to run away, they would

catch you and kill you, and hang your body from the electricity pylon as a warning. Four of my neighbours

were caught trying to escape, and I saw them hanging… They were left for days.”

Consequently, as IS lost territory during the course of the battle for west Mosul, the areas it still controlled

became increasingly crowded with civilians. In interviews with Amnesty International, Mosul residents

regularly described sheltering in homes with relatives or neighbours in groups of between 15 and 100

people. IS also regularly denied medical care to civilians and prevented their access to the stockpiles of food

its fighters had gathered. Civilians under IS control were left with only one chance of escape: directly through

the front lines of the battle. West Mosul residents described desperate flights from their homes to areas

controlled by Iraqi forces, doing all they could to avoid the air strikes, mortars, artillery attacks and gunfire

that surrounded them.

VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES

IS tactics and violations created particular challenges for pro-government forces in terms of civilian

protection in west Mosul. Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces failed to adequately adapt their

tactics to these challenges

–

as required by international humanitarian law

–

with disastrous consequences

for civilians. Starting in January 2017, Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces (referred to in this report

collectively as pro-government forces) carried out a series of unlawful attacks in west Mosul. Pro-government

forces relied heavily upon explosive weapons with wide area effects such as IRAMs (Improvised Rocket

Assisted Munitions). With their crude targeting abilities, these weapons wreaked havoc in densely populated

west Mosul, where large groups of civilians were trapped in homes or makeshift shelters. 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. “Faisal” from al-Msherfa,

expressed outrage with pro-government

forces’ tactics: “Did they [pro-government

forces] try to hit IS targets? IS was with you,

in your house.”

The true death toll of the west Mosul battle may never be known. According to Airwars, an independent

monitoring group, between 19 February and 19 June 2017, attacks launched by Iraqi and coalition forces

caused the deaths of at least 3,706 civilians. Firmly attributing responsibility for attacks has proved

challenging for Airwars and all monitoring groups tracking civilian casualties in west Mosul. Even so, this

figure is very likely to be an underestimate, as it has been difficult for monitors to record deaths and injuries

due to the intensity of the fighting and the fact that IS has banned the use of mobile phones in areas under

its control. For this report, Amnesty International investigated and documented 45 attacks in west Mosul that

it had reasonable grounds to attribute to Iraqi government or US-led coalition forces. These 45 attacks alone

killed at least 426 civilians and injured more than 100.

Pro-government forces failed to take feasible precautions to protect civilians during the battle for west Mosul.

They did air-drop leaflets into IS-controlled areas of the city instructing civilians to stay away from IS. Yet

these warnings were so difficult to heed that they were ridiculed by west Mosul residents. People had no

control over where IS moved. Instead, they were often held hostage in their own homes or neighbourhoods.

Moreover, IS threatened to kill those who read or even picked up these leaflets.

If military planners were unaware of the likely civilian toll of the west Mosul operation before it began, it

would have become evident after the first weeks of the operation. It was pro-government soldiers, after all,

who assisted in countless front-line rescues, digging bodies out of collapsed buildings, separating the injured

from the dead and arranging the transport of thousands to medical facilities nearby. Despite this, pro-

government forces failed to adequately adapt their tactics in order to effectively protect civilians. They

continued to rely upon imprecise, explosive weapons, ignoring the ever-growing toll of civilian death and

injuries. In such a densely populated urban environment, military planners should have taken extra care in

targeting and their choice of weapons to ensure that attacks were not unlawful.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

RECOMMENDATIONS

In west Mosul, as IS escalated its campaign of abhorrent violations against civilians, pro-government forces

failed to adequately protect civilians, carrying out attacks that appear to have been disproportionate or

indiscriminate, killing and injuring thousands of civilians and destroying homes and infrastructure.

Amnesty International calls on IS to end the practice of using civilians as human shields and to stop forcibly

moving civilians into the battlefield and preventing their evacuation. Amnesty International calls on pro-

government forces to cease the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects

–

including artillery, mortars

and IRAMs

–

in densely populated areas, in accordance with international humanitarian law which prohibits

indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and requires parties to a conflict to take all feasible precautions

to minimize harm to civilians. Pro-government forces must do all they can to ensure the safe evacuation of

civilians from the city. Members of the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government must conduct independent

and transparent investigations where there is credible information that violations of international

humanitarian law have taken place, prosecute those reasonably suspected of responsibility for war crimes in

fair trials, and ensure that victims of violations and their families receive full reparation.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

2. METHODOLOGY

This report is based on field research in northern Iraq carried out between 14 and 19 March 2017 and

between 2 and 16 May 2017. It covers events in west Mosul from January to mid-May 2017. Amnesty

International conducted research in west and east Mosul and in camps hosting people who had fled violence

in Mosul after February 2017. These camps, located in Ninewa and Erbil governorates and between 22km

and 69km away from Mosul, included Chamkour, Jedaa, Haj Ali, Hamam al-Alil and Hasan Shami.

Three Amnesty International researchers interviewed a total of 151 west Mosul residents for this report. All of

these residents were civilians; 44 were women, 105 were men, and two were under the age of 18. Interviews

were carried out on a one-to-one basis when possible and otherwise in small groups. Camp or local

authorities were not present during interviews. Amnesty International sought out interviewees who had left

west Mosul after February 2017. Within this pool it carried out interviews based on random selection. The

majority of interviews were conducted in Arabic, with some conducted in English or using English-Arabic

translation.

Amnesty International interviewed seven doctors and other medical workers at three medical centres,

including a field clinic in west Mosul, a field hospital in Ninewa governorate and a hospital in Erbil, in the

Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I). Amnesty International also interviewed international and national

humanitarian workers, journalists, military and arms experts and United Nations officials operating in and

around Mosul.

Amnesty International reviewed reports from UN agencies, international NGOs, local monitoring groups and

the media. Amnesty International also reviewed statements from the Iraqi government and the US-led

coalition on the Mosul operation, including documents and oral statements made by government

spokespeople. To corroborate the specific attacks and broader patterns documented in this report, the

organization examined and analysed satellite imagery as well as photo and video material. Some of this photo

and video material was provided to the organization on a confidential basis by sources within the

humanitarian community and the UN and some was publicly available. Amnesty International also sought to

verify all available audiovisual material uploaded onto open source media that captured events described in

this report. Very little audiovisual material was available, however, because IS banned the possession of

mobile phones in Mosul.

Most of the interviewees in this report are referred to by their first name only, following requests by the

interviewees. Several asked for their names to be withheld completely, either to protect their own safety or

the safety of their family members. In these cases, Amnesty International has included their testimonies but

their names have been changed. These names appear in quotation marks. To preserve the anonymity of the

witnesses, the locations of the interviews are generally not specified.

Iraqi government forces were assisted in their efforts to re-establish government control in Mosul by an

international coalition led by the USA. In Mosul, it is extremely difficult for monitors to attribute individual

actions to different elements within the Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition. For ease of reference, this

report therefore uses the term “pro-government forces” to refer to the various branches of the Iraqi armed

forces and security forces and the multiple forces representing the US-led international coalition that were

involved in the fighting.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

On 21 and 22 June 2017, Amnesty International communicated the key findings detailed in this report in

two letters: one addressed to Iraqi Minister of Defence Irfan al-Hayali and the other addressed to US

Secretary of Defense James Mattis. No responses had been received as of 1 July 2017, when this report was

finalized.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

3. BACKGROUND

3.1 LEAD-UP TO THE WEST MOSUL OPERATION

The military operation by pro-government forces

to retake the city of Mosul and its surrounding areas from

the control of IS, dubbed operation

Qadimun Ya Nainawa

(We Are Coming, Ninewa), was announced on 16

October 2016.

Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government swept through the countryside

from north-east of the city, retaking control of at least nine villages by 18 October 2016.

Iraqi government

forces advanced from south-east of the city, first recapturing outer areas like Gogjali on 2 November 2016,

before the Ninth Division of the Iraqi army entered the city through al-Intisar neighbourhood on 3 November

2016.

On 24 January 2017, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pronounced east Mosul as fully recaptured

from the control of IS.

On 19 February 2017, the military operation to retake west Mosul commenced.

While Peshmerga forces

maintained control in areas like Sheikhan and Sinjar, located north-west of Mosul in Ninewa governorate,

they did not participate in the recapture of west Mosul.

Pro-government forces recaptured areas south of

west Mosul such as Albusaif on 20 February and eventually entered the city on 24 February 2017 through

Mosul airport.

This report

uses the term “pro-government forces” to refer to the various branches of the Iraqi armed forces and security forces and forces

representing the US-led international coalition. Members of the coalition active in the Mosul battle include, in addition to the USA, Australia,

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For a full list of coalition members, see Operation Inherent

Resolve,

‘About

us: Coalition’, 2017, www.inherentresolve.mil/About-Us/Coalition/

Office of the Prime Minister,

Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Dr. Haider Al-Abadi announces the launch of

the liberation of Mosul

(in Arabic), 16 October 2016, bit.ly/2sX7efd

Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq Representation in the United States,

Peshmerga liberate nine villages in first day of Mosul

operation,

18 October 2016, www.krg.us/press-releases/press-releases-english/peshmerga-liberate-nine-villages-in-first-day-of-mosul-

operation/

War Media Cell,

‘Commander

of the We Are Coming, Ninewa operations Lieutenant General Abdel-Ameer Rasheed Yarallah: Counter-

Terrorism Service units take control of the area of Gogjali and Mosul TV station after inflicting loss of life and equipment on the enemy and

are continuing to advance’ (in Arabic),

1 November 2016, bit.ly/2r4O6GR; Kurdistan24,

‘Iraqi

forces storm al-Intisar neighbourhood in east

Mosul’ (in Arabic), 3 November 2016, bit.ly/2r4PRDN

Office of the Prime Minister,

The Council of Ministers holds its regular session chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Haider Abadi

(in Arabic), 24

January 2017, bit.ly/2tQTyyE; AlSumaria News,

‘Abadi announces complete liberation of east Mosul and calls for speeding up recapture of

the west’ (in Arabic), 24 January 2017,

bit.ly/2qVKUhj

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,

Flash Update #4: Mosul Humanitarian Response,

19 February 2017,

http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/ocha-iraq-flash-update-4-mosul-humanitarian-response-19-february-2017-enarku

Kurdistan24,

‘Peshmerga

will not participate in western Mosul operation: Ministry’, 22 February 2017,

www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/2cb07c92-5349-43da-828a-e6cc08271c70/Peshmerga-will-not-participate-in-western-Mosul-operation--

Ministry

See War Media Cell / Joint Operations Command (in Arabic), 20 February 2017, bit.ly/2sRBdks;

BBC News, ‘Iraqi forces enter

IS-held

neighbourhood in west Mosul’, 24 February 2017, bbc.in/2sRkEFl

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

3.2 THE WEST MOSUL OPERATION

IS TACTICS

Civilians who

lived under IS control in Mosul described the armed group as an agile and mobile “ghost

force”. IS constructed a network of tunnels and passageways between houses and apartment buildings, and

they moved between military positions by foot, on motorbikes and in civilian cars. This enabled fighters to

move quickly into advantageous fighting positions

–

often on the roofs of houses

–

before escaping just as

quickly underground or into another house. Many west Mosul residents spoke about how IS tactics varied

based on the particular layout and architectural character of each neighbourhood. For instance, residents of

neighbourhoods such as Wadi Hajjar and Tel al-Rumman reported that IS fighters would move between

houses through holes they had made in the walls, while

residents of Mosul’s Old City said that IS primarily

moved underground in their neighbourhood, as most of the houses had cellars that IS had linked via

tunnels.

TACTICS OF PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES

The operation to recapture west Mosul from IS, which officially began on 19 February 2017, saw a marked

change of tactics by pro-government forces from those used in east Mosul from October 2016 to January

2017.

Air strikes carried out in east Mosul were generally against pre-selected targets and not in support of

front-line fighting. Under the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the elite Counter-Terrorism

Service (CTS) troops spearheading the east Mosul operation were expected to fight their way into IS-

controlled neighbourhoods without reliance on close air support.

The CTS paid a heavy price for this tactic;

estimates of CTS casualties, including deaths and injuries, in east Mosul range from 4,000 to 6,000 of a total

fighting force of 8,000 troops, meaning the CTS was depleted by between 50% and 75%.

The use of artillery, mortars and particularly IRAMs (Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions) did not feature

as heavily in east Mosul as it did in the west Mosul operation. During the east Mosul operation, aerially

deployed ordnance was largely limited to precision-guided munitions fired from fixed-wing aircraft.

During

the west Mosul operation, pro-government forces used an array of air-to-surface ordnance, including

missiles, air-dropped bombs and cannon shells fired from fixed-wing planes and missiles, rockets, cannon

shells and machine-gun ammunition fired from attack helicopters. They also used surface-to-surface

ordnance such as projectiles launched from rocket artillery, cannons, howitzers and BM-21

“Grad” multiple

rocket launchers, as well as mortars and IRAMs. Pro-government troops used some of these resources prior

to entering IS-controlled neighbourhoods to reduce the level of resistance they would encounter. CTS troops

were permitted to call in air strikes by members of the US-led coalition in response to front-line challenges.

Although the west Mosul operation officially began on 19 February 2017, preparatory strikes were carried out in January 2017.

Interview with a confidential source with links to Iraqi and coalition forces on 13 May 2017.

Interviews with confidential sources from within the humanitarian community, the UN and the diplomatic community on 15 February, 3

May, 5 May, 13 May and 12 June 2017.

Interviews with confidential sources from within the humanitarian community, the UN and the diplomatic community on 15 February, 3

May, 5 May, 13 May and 12 June 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

WEAPON ACCURACY

Coalition warplanes

US-led coalition warplanes include gunship aircraft, armed drones, fighter aircraft and bomber aircraft.

They are fitted with infrared sensors allowing the aircrew to see the ground during the day and night. They

employ guided munitions

–

rockets, missiles and bombs

–

which direct themselves to their target. They

use either laser-guided

weapons with a “circular error probable” of about 1m, or GPS-guided

bombs, with

a “circular error probable” of about 10m.

The 500lb general purpose bombs used by the coalition in

Mosul contain about 90kg of high explosive and are lethal within a radius of 230m.

Mortars and howitzers

Pro-government forces fired mortar and howitzer projectiles in west Mosul. IS also used mortars

extensively but its use of howitzers was much more limited. Both mortars and howitzers are typically

unguided. They are manually aimed by adjusting the elevation (up-down) and the deflection (left-right) of

the

gun. To take account of their lower level of accuracy, mortar crews often adjust their fire to “walk”

projectiles closer and closer to their intended targets by means of trial and error. Mortars generally range

from 60mm to 120mm in diameter and deliver explosive warheads to targets 100m to 7,000m away.

Howitzers are generally larger, either 105mm or 155mm in diameter. They deliver explosive warheads to

engage targets between several hundred metres and 40,000m away.

The accuracy of such unguided projectiles tends to degrade with range. For example, when firing at

targets 15km away, a 155mm howitzer has a “circular error probable” of 95m, but when firing at targets

30km away the “circular error probable” increases to 275m. When a typical 155mm high explosive

projectile detonates, it is lethal up to 40m away.

Rocket artillery

The US-led coalition uses GPS-guided M31 GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) rockets that

can engage targets between 15,000m and 70,000m away. Iraqi forces use a makeshift weapon known as

an IRAM (Improvised Rocket Assisted Munition), which is unguided and considered inherently

indiscriminate, as well as unguided 122mm “Grad” rockets, which engage targets between 1,500m and

20,000m away.

The M31 GMLRS rocket is accurate to within 10m of its intended target. With a warhead containing 90kg

of high explosive, the M31 is lethal within 230m of impact.

A typical 122mm “Grad” rocket is not nearly so accurate. When fired at a target 20km away, a “Grad”

rocket could fall anywhere in a space 600m long and 320m wide centred around the intended point of

impact. When a full salvo of 40 “Grad” rockets are fired, they create a lethal area 600m long and 600m

wide.

Improvised explosive devices

IS relied heavily upon improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Mosul. The home-made nature of these

devices means the amount and quality of explosive they contain is variable, from a few kilograms to

several hundred kilograms in size, containing everything from reliable military-grade high explosives to

poor quality fertilizer mixtures. It is impossible to estimate their lethal blast radius without knowing their

size and composition. IEDs are often packed with fragmentation elements, such as nails or ball bearings to

increase their anti-personnel effect. The forms they took also varied widely and included small improvised

land mines, booby-trapped doors and houses, cars and trucks rigged with explosives and detonated by

their drivers, and small remote-control quadcopter drones dropping munitions from the sky. The types of

IEDs used by IS in Mosul should never be used in civilian areas.

The “circular error probable” refers to the accuracy of a weapon, expressed as a circle

of a given radius in which approximately half of the

munitions will land inside and half will land outside of it.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining,

Explosive weapon effects: Final report,

February 2017,

www.gichd.org/fileadmin/GICHD-resources/rec-documents/Explosive_weapon_effects_web.pdf

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

The biggest factor affecting the tactical change from east to west Mosul appears to have been lack of

available manpower. The best trained and equipped fighting force available for urban warfare in Mosul were

Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOP) I and II. They are part of a wider formation of Counter-Terrorism

Service (CTS) forces, other elements of which were not involved in the operation.

According to sources with

links to the Iraqi government, members of this mixed, multi-confessional force received one year of training

prior to deployment. Having been so severely depleted by unexpected levels of IS resistance in east Mosul,

the Iraqi military had to rely on other fighting forces in its rush to retake west Mosul in the first half of 2017.

CTS remnants were joined by Federal Police, as well as Emergency Response Division troops and forces

from the 9

and 16

brigades of the regular Iraqi army. US and French Special Operations Forces are also

believed to have assisted on the ground.

Each force was assigned separate geographic battle spaces, as

well as areas to hold once the fighting was finished. Much of the shortfall was made up by the Federal

Police, whose members are believed to have received between two and six weeks of pre-deployment

training. Topography, or the physical difference between east and west Mosul, is also likely to have affected

tactics in the west. West Mosul is a smaller physical area than east Mosul, but it contains the Old City with its

tightly packed houses and other densely populated neighbourhoods, which are home to poorer sectors of the

population.

Another factor distinguishing the west Mosul operation from that in the east of the city was that in west Mosul

IS fighters had fewer possibilities to escape. During the battle for east Mosul from October 2016 to January

2017, many IS fighters are believed to have escaped east Mosul, preferring to avoid a final stand there.

Although Iraqi security forces cordoned off escape routes to the east with support from Peshmerga forces of

the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Popular Mobilization Units, Iraqi state-supported militias, fleeing

fighters were able to access west Mosul, where they joined preparations for the forthcoming battle. Western

escape routes were restricted in October 2016, although some IS fighters managed to reach Tel Afar, which

lies around 65km north-west of Mosul and remained an IS stronghold. Escape routes were cut off fully by

early 2017, when the west Mosul operation began in earnest.

The only option left for IS fighters wishing to

avoid combat was blending in with civilians leaving the city and taking their chances at government

screening centres designed to weed them out. Many of them therefore opted to stay and fight.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining,

Explosive weapon effects: Final report,

February 2017,

www.gichd.org/fileadmin/GICHD-resources/rec-documents/Explosive_weapon_effects_web.pdf

Interviews with confidential sources from within the humanitarian community, the UN and the diplomatic community on 15 February, 3

May, 5 May, 13 May and 12 June 2017.

Interviews with confidential sources from within the humanitarian community, the UN and the diplomatic community on 15 February, 3

May, 5 May, 13 May and 12 June 2017.

Interviews with confidential sources from within the humanitarian community, the UN and the diplomatic community on 15 February, 3

May, 5 May, 13 May and 12 June 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Imagery was used to analyse the damage caused during the Battle for Mosul. In east Mosul, imagery from 21 October 2016 and 19 January 2017 was compared over 27

square kilometres. In west Mosul, imagery from 19 January 2017 and 15 April 2017 was compared over 29 square kilometres. Additional imagery from 28 May 2017 was

used to verify later testimonies. With the assault to recapture west Mosul still in progress, the damage recorded to date far exceeds the damage seen in east Mosul. The

map below illustrates the areas analysed and recorded damage over the respective timeframes.

The following image chips will show examples of damage by neighbourhoods in east and west Mosul. Large craters, noted in the images, are likely related to tactics to

inhibit the opposition forces from easily moving through the neighbourhoods. Imagery over west Mosul captured on 15 April 2017 is likely after rain showers and

therefore, the quality of the imagery is negatively impacted by the moisture. Coordinates: 36.3452°, 43.1403° © Baseline Data: OpenStreetMaps

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

4. VIOLATIONS BY IS

“We

did not have any options. If you stayed, you would die in

your house from the fighting. If you tried to run away, they

would catch you and kill you, and hang your body from the

electricity pylon as a warning.”

“Hasan” from al-Hermat,

west Mosul

4.1 SUMMARY

During the battle for west Mosul, IS committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international

humanitarian law, some of which constitute war crimes. In several instances, IS has turned the imperative,

under international humanitarian law, to protect civilians on its head, ruthlessly and unlawfully exploiting

civilian immunity from attack in an attempt to shield its own forces.

In October 2016, IS began rounding up civilians and forcing them to move directly into the zone of combat.

Since then, IS has carried out a systematic campaign of forced displacement, moving thousands of civilians

from contested villages or neighbourhoods into areas they still controlled. IS has then used these civilians

and others already living in IS-controlled areas as human shields. The armed group also prevented these

civilians from evacuating to safety, trapping them in their homes by welding their doors shut, rigging booby

traps at exits, or summarily killing those attempting to escape.

Consequently, as IS lost territory during the course of the battle, IS-controlled areas became increasingly

crowded with civilians. Mosul residents routinely described to Amnesty International how they sheltered in

homes with relatives or neighbours in groups of between 15 and 100 people.

Effectively held captive by IS, many civilians had only one option to escape: directly through the front lines of

the battle. Dozens of civilians told Amnesty International that they attempted to flee at exactly the point when

the front line of the battle reached their neighbourhood or street. They described desperate flights from their

homes to pro-government

forces’ positions, waving white flags or pieces of fabric, yelling the words

“civilians” or “families” and doing whatever they could to avoid

the air strikes, mortars, artillery attacks and

gunfire that surrounded them.

Interview with “Hasan” (real name withheld) on 14 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Residents told Amnesty International that IS regularly denied medical care to civilians

–

including both

routine care and urgent care necessary to treat their injuries after ground or air attacks. Residents also

reported that IS fighters had either confiscated their food or prevented them from accessing the food the

armed group had stockpiled.

They expressed outrage at the way they had been treated by IS. They deplored how IS had provided for the

safety and welfare of its own fighters while forcing civilians onto the battlefield. Not only was IS subjecting

civilians to horrific living conditions and barring their access to medical care and food, it was preventing

thousands of families from escaping the fighting. The armed group summarily killed men, women and

children whose only “crime” was to try

to make it out of Mosul alive.

4.2 FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND HUMAN SHIELDING

IS has systematically moved civilians into the conflict in west Mosul, forcing civilians to stay in its territory as

it contracted. In some cases, IS fighters directed the movement of civilians in buses, cars or by foot, even

instructing young men to carry elderly and disabled relatives. In other cases, civilians moved themselves,

believing they had no other option but to stay in IS-controlled territory after witnessing summary killings or

seeing the bodies of those killed by IS for having tried to escape.

Starting in October 2016, IS moved civilians from many of the villages surrounding the city into west Mosul.

Displaced people interviewed by Amnesty International explained how IS rounded up thousands of civilians

from these villages. For instance, “Adib”,

a 42-year-old man, described

his family’s experience:

We are from Mousa al-Harran, a village 15km south of Mosul. IS pushed us from our village into

west Mosul in December 2016. IS said that we had to leave our houses. We heard that some

people tried to escape, but they threatened us with death if we did that…

So we went with them

into Wadi Hajjar, in west Mosul. Around 500 families were displaced from our village. They moved

us in buses. We moved in cycles, so one group would leave, and then the bus would take the next

group.

“Abu Haider”

described how he and his family were moved from Tel Arbeed, a small village south of

Mosul, into west Mosul in October 2016. He said that IS used civilian cars to transport him, his wife and his

two children from Tel Arbeed into Wadi Hajjar neighbourhood in west Mosul. He reported that IS moved 100

other families

–

roughly 1,500 people

– from his village into the city. “[IS] said you must leave, or you will be

killed,” he explained. “We were brought as human shields. They brought us to stand between them and the

missiles.

All of this happened just before the operation for west Mosul started… When the Iraqi forces went

forward, IS fell back, and they took most of the civilians with them.”

As the battle for west Mosul continued and IS’s territory further diminished after February

2017, the armed

group forced civilians to move from contested areas of the city to areas the armed group still controlled.

Dozens of west Mosul residents told Amnesty International that they were forced to move further into IS-

controlled territory when

the fighting approached their neighbourhoods. For instance, “Mohsen”,

a farmer

from Hamam al-Alil, described how he was forced to move from his village and then to three separate

neighbourhoods in west Mosul as the front line of the battle moved back:

IS forced us to move with them… In November 2016, they forced me to move from Hamam al-Alil,

where we had our cattle and our sheep, to Wadi Hajjar, where we stayed for two months. Then they

According to displaced people interviewed by Amnesty International, these villages included Mousa al-Harran, Tel Arbeed, al-Jiran,

Bakheera, Zummar and Hamam al-Alil. A staff member of an international humanitarian organization specialized in protection for displaced

persons confirmed that the organization was told by civilians living in villages near Mosul that they had been displaced by IS into west

Mosul. Email correspondence on 29 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Adib”

on 4 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Abu

Haider” on 4 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

forced us to walk to Tel al-Rumman, where we spent two days, and then on to al-Msherfa, where

we were until we left three days ago.

West Mosul residents reported that when they arrived in a new area of the city, they usually gathered

together in their relatives’ or neighbours’ homes. Those without relatives would search

for empty houses,

seek refuge with strangers or find accommodation in makeshift shelters or public buildings such as schools.

EVICTION FROM HOMES

West Mosul residents also reported that they were displaced from their homes so that IS could use them as

military bases or lodging for fighters. For instance, Ahmed, a 41-year-old man who lived in the area of

Zummar before he was displaced into al-Hermat,

west Mosul, told Amnesty International: “A few weeks ago,

IS came to our house and told us we had to go to another house. They told us they would use our house

whenever they wanted to. Our family is 13 people including me… We had to leave our house in the middle

of the night.”

Several residents told Amnesty International that IS had forced them or their neighbours to leave their homes

so that fighters could rig them with improvised explosive devices. For instance, “Faisal”,

a 36-year-old

man, told Amnesty International that just before IS lost control of al-Islah al-Ziraee neighbourhood, the

armed group planted improvised explosive devices inside all the homes near the front line and ordered the

civilians living in these homes to move further into IS-controlled

territory. “They ordered people from their

homes along Aswaq [Markets] Street and they rigged the homes with explosives, since they would be the

first homes the Counter-Terrorism

Service came to,” he said. “Some of the evicted people came to stay with

us at my family’s home.”

4.3 SUMMARY KILLINGS AND PREVENTION OF

EVACUATION

IS routinely prevented the evacuation of civilians from west Mosul. In some cases IS used explosive devices

to trap them in their homes or welded their doors shut. In other cases the armed group threatened or

summarily killed those who attempted to flee.

ENTRAPMENT IN HOMES OR NEIGHBOURHOODS

Several residents told Amnesty International that IS had placed explosive devices on their streets or in their

neighbourhoods, which prevented them from evacuating. For instance, “Hasan”,

a 42-year-old man from

al-Hermat, said:

[IS] placed explosive booby traps at both ends of the street, so that nobody could leave. They put

the explosives under the ground, in tea kettles, so that you didn’t know where you could step. You

couldn’t see them. You could only see that there were

wires sticking out [of the ground], so people

on our street could not leave. They think all of the people with them should die if they try to escape,

so they placed these traps.

Mosul residents also told Amnesty International that IS had trapped them inside

their homes. “Mohsen”

shared his experience of this:

Interview with "Mohsen” on 10 May 2017.

Interview with Ahmed on 8 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview on with

“Faisal”

on 14 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hasan”

on 14 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

In al-Msherfa,

we were in the basement of our house the last 10 days… There were 15 of us,

including both my uncles and their families… When the Iraqi forces came, the mortars and

missiles came with

them. We tried to run, but IS wouldn’t let us go. They welded the front door of

our house shut… They came to us in a pick-up

truck, with a generator in the back, and then they

welded shut the gap between the two doors… They did this to our door, and even

worse, they did it

to another house in our neighbourhood where hundreds of people were staying.

“Hussein”,

a 47-year-old man from al-Hermat, told Amnesty International that IS had planted an explosive

device in his home to prevent him and his family from fleeing:

In the end IS came to the house where we were hiding. They warned us not to go to the Iraqi forces

and forbade us from leaving the area. They booby-trapped

the house so that we couldn’t leave…

The explosives were in a large box and they were connected to a very thin wire. IS strung the wire

across the door of the room we were in to prevent us from leaving. We were trapped in the room, as

we were afraid of setting off the explosives. What IS did not know was that the owner of the house

had a pair of scissors. We were afraid to cut the wire in case IS came back but the following day,

when we heard the Iraqi forces advance, we cut the wire, escaped from the house and went to

them.

SUMMARY KILLINGS, DIRECT ATTACKS AND DEATH THREATS

Dozens of residents told Amnesty International that they had either witnessed summary killings or seen the

corpses of civilians who had attempted to escape IS-controlled areas of the city.

“Abeer”,

a 20-year-old

woman from al-Msherfa, west Mosul, shared a typical

experience: “They told us that when the Iraqi forces

came, we were not allowed to escape. If we tried to run away, they would break our legs so we would never

walk again. They said, ‘Nobody will escape alive.’”

“Hasan”,

a 42-year-old man from al-Hermat, told Amnesty International:

We did not have any options. If you stayed, you would die in your house from the fighting. If you

tried to run away, they would catch you and kill you, and hang your body from the electricity pylon

as a warning. Four of my neighbours were caught trying to escape, and I saw them hanging from

the electricity pylon. They were left for days, just hanging there. They would hang between 15 and

50 people from the pylons.

“Hazem”,

a 42-year-old man from al-Tenak neighbourhood, described to Amnesty International the threats

he faced from IS. “At the beginning April [2017], an IS fighter walked around all of our neighbourhood and

the market, and yelled, ‘I am Abu Sulaiman Tikriti and, if anyone tries to escape, I will kill him myself.’ When

we heard this, we knew that we might never make it out alive,” he said.

Regardless of the threat, Hazem

attempted to escape that night with several of his neighbours, but was shot in the leg by an IS sniper and

then took shelter in an abandoned house. An hour later, he decided to return to his house and, in the course

of doing so, came across the corpses of around 75 people who had also tried to escape that night. “They

Interview with

“Mohsen”

on 10 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hussein”

on 10 May 2017.

On 8 June 2017, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that it had received credible reports

indicating that IS had killed 231 civilians attempting to flee west Mosul between 26 May and 8 June, including at least 204 between 1 and 3

June 2017. See OHCHR,

Mosul: UN receives reports of mass killings of fleeing civilians by ISIL,

8 June 2017,

www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21701&LangID=E

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Abeer”

on 12 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hasen”

on 14 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

were my neighbours and others who stayed in my neighbourhood… They were just there on

side of the road,

in the outskirts of al-Tenak

neighbourhood, in the Silo area,” he told Amnesty International.

Just as Hazem described above, many residents told Amnesty International that they or others were directly

targeted by IS fighters during their attempts to evacuate from IS-controlled territory. Mohamed, a 30-year-old

man from Mosul’s Old City, told Amnesty International about two deaths he witnessed during his escape

from al-Thawra neighbourhood, where he sheltered during the west Mosul battle:

During our escape, an IS sniper shot the people behind me. The man they shot and killed was a

top, UK-educated

doctor… between 50 and 55 years of age. He was escaping with his son who

was either 19 or 20 years old. The son ran back to his father to try to save him and he too was shot.

I went to try to save him but he was shot through the neck. There was blood everywhere.

Several residents also told Amnesty International that IS had embedded spies and informants among the

civilian population whose job was to identify and punish those who were considering fleeing.

“Hasan”,

42-year-old man from al-Hermat,

explained: “[IS] would disguise themselves as civilians… and they would

ask you where you were going. If you said you were trying to escape, they would kill you. These spies were

everywhere

– in the streets and in the market.”

“Israa”,

a 25-year-old woman from al-Msherfa, west

Mosul, added: “When you leave to escape, you have to keep it a secret from everyone. You don’t know

which of your neighbours to trust, and there was so much fear. There was one man who was planning to

escape with his family, and IS found out. They caught him and slit his throat in front of his family.”

None of the Mosul residents interviewed by Amnesty International evacuated with the consent of IS. Israa

once believed she was given permission to escape by an IS fighter, but in the end she was turned back. She

described the incident to Amnesty International:

I had tried to escape four separate times

–

twice with my family, and twice just with my two kids. In

the middle of April [2017]… an IS fighter caught me just as I was crossing over, into the trench at

the front line. I was in al-Islah al-Ziraee. The trench was full of water, and it was very muddy. He

said that I could go, and I made it into the trench. The water was up to my chest, and I was

carrying my two children, trying to keep them above the water. Then the IS fighter started shooting

at me, and told me to come back. I came back full of mud and soaked. He laughed and said that

was my punishment for trying to escape.

Several residents told Amnesty International that, in order to avoid being forced by IS to relocate with them

as the group lost territory, they would hide from the armed group.

For instance, “Motasem”,

a 20-year-old

man from al-Msherfa, told Amnesty International:

There were 17 people in our house including five children, staying in al-Msherfa…

We were hiding

from IS, because we were afraid they would force us to move to another neighbourhood. We

weren’t

using the water because it would have flowed out, and then IS would have known we were

there. The hardest thing was keeping the children quiet

–

we were trying to keep them entertained,

to provide anything they wanted. We had nothing to give them, so this was really difficult.

Amnesty International was told about a similar incident in al-Hermat.

“Ibrahim”

(real name withheld) reported that he saw the corpse of

his nephew, along with 70-75 other men who had tried to escape their neighbourhood.

“I saw [my nephew’s] body. They’d shot him in the

back of the head… They were all men and they’d all been shot in the same way. He and the others had gone to try to [flee to]

the Iraqi

forces

and IS had intercepted them. They left because we didn’t

have food or water in al-Hermat,”

he said. Interview with “Ibrahim”

on 10

May 2017.

Interview with Mohamed on 10 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hasan”

on 14 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Israa”

on 12 May 2017.

Interview with

“Israa”

on 12 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Motasem”

on 14 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

“Hasan” described a similar experience: “In the house, there were 25 people –

my wife, mum, nieces,

nephews. We were from eight different families. We were hiding from IS so that we could escape when the

Iraqi forces came, so when the kids cried, we would put our hands over their mouths,”

he said.

“Hikmat”,

a 69-year-old man from al-Hermat, described the extra precautions his family took during their

escape from IS-held territory:

After 10 days, the area was empty, and we said we should leave that day or the next

–

so finally we

decided to leave. There was no sound in the neighbourhood, so we asked a nurse in our area to

give us cough syrup for the kids, so that they wouldn’t make any noise and draw attention to us. If

they had just

yelled out “mum” or “dad”, IS would have shot us.

4.4 CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED DISPLACEMENT,

HUMAN SHIELDING AND PREVENTION OF EVACUATION

ESCAPE THROUGH THE FRONT LINES

Many west Mosul residents interviewed by Amnesty International reported that, because IS had prevented

them from evacuating, they felt they had no other option but to attempt to escape IS-held territory directly

through the front lines of the battle.

These residents told Amnesty International that they made their escape

attempts not when the fighting had subsided, but instead when it reached its peak.

“Abdallah”,

a 22-year-old man from al-Tenak

neighbourhood, described his family’s escape

from their

home in March 2017.

We were planning to escape, but we couldn’t take a decision until we

knew how close the Iraqi

forces were. On 29 March [2017], the bombing was non-stop, so we knew they were coming.

Around 4pm, the number of explosions increased… We were under the stairway on the ground

floor of the house… We heard a car bomb explode nearby.

A truck was moving down the street,

and we knew to expect a big explosion from that. Then the truck exploded 50m from our house…

After 50 minutes, another car bomb exploded, and the fighting between the two sides was right in

front of us… A third car bomb exploded, and an air strike targeted our neighbour’s house, which

was the highest in the neighbourhood. Another two houses behind us were hit a few minutes later.

It was a terrible moment. We didn’t know what to do, and whether we should leave or stay in

the

house. Finally, we decided it was better to leave

–

better to leave than to let the roof fall on our

heads. Our group of 11 ran out, and a family sheltering nearby also ran out at the same time…

When we left the house, everyone just had to take care of themselves. We were running

–

running

as fast as we could. IS fighters were shooting at the Iraqi forces, and at us. I saw one woman who

was killed by the snipers… Probably it was a short distance, but because of the fear, it felt so long.

Finally we reached the Counter-Terrorism Service, but everything was chaos. We had got messages

from other families who had crossed to the Iraqi forces, and so we knew what to do: we sat down in

the middle of the street, and we put our hands up and yelled, “We are families, we are civilians!”

They yelled back that we shouldn’t come any closer. Then they finally yelled for us to approach.

Mohamed, a 30-year-old man who sheltered in al-Thawra neighbourhood, shared a similar account:

Interview with

“Hasan”

on 14 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hikmat”

on 14 May 2017.

Some west Mosul residents told Amnesty International that civilians had only one other option apart from trying to escape through the

front lines, which was to shelter in their homes and wait to be rescued by Iraqi forces after their neighbourhoods were retaken.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Abdallah”

on 5 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

We slept in the school for 15 nights.

During this time the fighting around the school got stronger…

We waited for the battle to intensify so that both sides would be so busy shooting at each other they

would not notice us. Eventually I put my head through the door and led my family out one by one.

We crept along hiding behind one house then another. The other families in the school did the

same and followed us. We headed for the front line of the Iraqi forces. As we approached it, we put

our hands in the air, waved our white flag and shouted,

“Civilians, civilians!”

“Israa” told Amnesty International that west Mosul residents had gathered in neighbourhoods near the front

line. “The families were gathering together in each other’s homes so that they could escape together. They

would come from nearby

neighbourhoods, like 17 Tammuz [neighbourhood]… When the people heard that

the front line was coming to them, they ran to it. There was no other way to escape.”

POPULATION DENSITY

Before the battle for the western side of the city began, west Mosul was already densely populated with

civilians.

According to residents, homes and shelters became increasingly packed with large groups of

civilians as the conflict raged on. Factors contributing to this trend included: IS moving civilians into the

conflict zone, which meant that, for every neighbourhood lost to pro-government forces, thousands more

civilians would be crowded into the territory IS still controlled; IS preventing civilians from escaping; and IS

regularly evicting civilians from their homes. Additionally, many civilians moved themselves to areas near the

front lines of the battle, as this was often their only route toward safety.

As a result of the above, large groups of between 15 and 100 civilians often sheltered together in a single

home or makeshift shelter in IS-controlled areas in west Mosul. As Alaa, a 32-year-old man from al-Hermat,

explained, “So often in al-Hermat, there would be five or six families in one house.”

Musab, a 35-year-old

man who took shelter in al-Thawra neighbourhood before he evacuated, gave a similar account:

Everyone was going to their relatives’ houses at that time [April 2017]. Relatives and families were

helping each other. In my uncle’s house, we were all relatives. There were 104 of us in the house –

nine families in total. We were all in hiding in the house, because, if IS saw us, they would take us

to another area

–

wherever the fight was

–

so that we could shield them. They needed us to protect

them.

According to “Mahmoud”,

a 43-year-old painter from al-Msherfa:

Al-Msherfa was full of people. There were many, many more people in the neighbourhood than

there normally would be. They had come from all over, from 17 Tammuz, from al-Hermat, from al-

Najjar, from al-Zinjili. In our house there were 75 people. There are usually no more than 10. All

the houses were like that… The people in our house were our friends but we would receive those

who weren’t friends of family as well, if they didn’t know anyone in the area. The worst thing about

having all these people

was the hunger; there wasn’t enough food to go around.

Sermat, a 30-year-old

man from west Mosul, added: “An IS fighter told us that he wished they had used the

human shields on the eastern side [of Mosul] too, because it was working very well on the

western side.”

Interview with Mohamed on 10 May 2017.

Interview with

“Israa”

on 12 May 2017.

See UN Habitat,

City profile of Mosul, Iraq: Multi-sector assessment of a city under siege,

October 2016,

reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UN-Habitat_MosulCityProfile_V5.pdf; UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,

Mosul humanitarian crisis,

4 April 2017, reliefweb.int/report/iraq/mosul-humanitarian-crisis-4-april-2017

Interview with Alaa on 8 May 2017.

Interview with Musab on 10 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Mahmoud”

on 10 May 2017.

Interview with Sermat on 10 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

4.5 DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE, FOOD AND WATER

DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE

According to west Mosul residents, IS routinely denied medical care to civilians. This denial of care escalated

after the beginning of the west Mosul battle in February 2017. Civilians reported being denied both routine

care and urgent care when they or their family members were injured as a result of ground or air attacks.

According to “Mazen”, a 30-year-old

man from al-Hermat:

“They took over the hospitals, and they didn’t

treat us any more. If there is a sick or wounded person, they might give you water if you are lucky.”

“Israa”

described her experience: “My niece had swelling in her liver because of malnutrition. We took her to the

hospital, and IS said there was no

treatment for her. They said it didn’t matter if she lived or died.”

“Malek”,

a car mechanic from al-Tenak neighbourhood, was injured in a mortar attack in April 2017. He

told Amnesty International: “My family put me in a car and drove me to al-Jamhouri

hospital in west Mosul.

There were two doctors still at the hospital but they said the hospital was only for IS. They sent me home.”

His father added, “After he was turned away from the hospital, I did my best to treat him at home. The only

thing I had

was Dettol [a brand of antiseptic disinfectant].”

“Faisal”, a 36-year-old

man from al-Msherfa, described his experience after he was shot in the leg by an IS

sniper:

There were no ambulances so someone went to fetch an old iron wheelbarrow. They put me in a

wheelbarrow and took me to al-Jamhouri

hospital. The hospital was under IS control. I arrived…

and a man asked me, “Are you a brother [a fellow IS member]?” When I said I was not they

refused to treat me. They left me there for around one hour. Then someone else came who was not

IS. He told them, “This man’s going to die.” A doctor came and told me that my leg was broken.

He put half a plaster cast on me then they left me on the floor of the hospital.

DENIAL OF FOOD AND WATER

Civilians in west Mosul have faced acute shortages of food and water. These shortages have led to starvation,

malnutrition, dehydration and other diseases and illness.

According to several residents, IS was at least partially responsible for these shortages, as it routinely

prevented

civilians from accessing the food and water they had stockpiled. “Laila”,

a 35-year-old woman

from

Mosul’s Old City, explained: “We took water from the rain, and the IS fighters said we didn’t even

deserve this. IS was going around the houses

–

they were free to choose any house, and to have a lunch and

take a rest. They would usually bring their own lunch, because we didn’t have any food.”

Several residents told Amnesty International that IS had confiscated the little food they had. Ali, a fruit and

vegetable seller from al-Hermat,

shared his experience of this: “There was water only for IS and their

Interview with

“Mazen”

on 14 May 2017.

Interview with

“Isaraa”

12 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Malek”

on 8 May 2017.

Interview on 8 May 2017.

Interview with

“Faisal”

on 14 May 2017.

See World Food Programme,

WFP concerned about malnutrition among hungry families fleeing Iraq’s western Mosul,

30 May 2017,

www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-concerned-about-malnutrition-among-hungry-families-fleeing-iraqs-western-mosu; UN High

Commissioner for Refugees,

Hunger and violence drive residents to flee west Mosul,

7 March 2017,

www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2017/3/58be97ec4/hunger-violence-drive-residents-flee-west-mosul.html

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Laila”

on 14 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

families. The situation was so awful… The IS used to steal from our houses. They would take our flour, sugar

and rice. They said to us, ‘You are the

common people

– you are with the Iraqi army.’”

IS’s denial and confiscation of food and water only compounded the atrocious conditions faced by civilians.

According to residents, in the rare cases when food was available for purchase, it was prohibitively

expensive. For example, in April 2017, 1kg of tea cost the equivalent of US$43, a can of vegetable oil cost

US$20 and a small bag of dates cost US$42.

Musab, a man who was sheltering in al-Thawra

neighbourhood before he evacuated, told Amnesty International:

We had some money, but there was nothing to buy. We would give the money to one of the boys in

the house, and he would come back with empty hands and tell us he couldn’t find any food to buy,

in the whole neighbourhood. We would put wheat in water and eat it, just to stay alive.

Some residents reported that they survived on unground spelt (a type of wheat) and grass during their final

days in west Mosul, with all supplies cut off as the final battle for their neighbourhoods approached. Musab’s

brother

Sermat added, “Before IS took control, I weighed 76kg. Under IS, I became 52kg. One of our

neighbours committed suicide because he couldn’t provide for his family.”

EXPLOITATION OF MEDICAL PROTECTION

Several residents told Amnesty International that, during the battle, IS fighters took up residence in al-

Jamhouri hospital in west Mosul. Ayman, a service worker in al-Jamhouri

hospital, reported, “I saw IS very

often

–

many of the foreign fighters stayed in the hospital, with their families. They stayed there because it

was safer there, because they knew it wouldn’t be targeted by the air strikes.”

In addition, residents

reported that IS fighters were living in the Ibn Sina hospital in al-Shifa.

Interview with Ali on 14 May 2017.

Interviews with west Mosul residents on 10 and 14 May 2017.

Interview with Musab on 10 May 2017.

Interview with Sermat on 10 May 2017.

Interviews with Ayman on 5 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

5. VIOLATIONS BY PRO-

GOVERNMENT FORCES

“The

strikes targeted the IS snipers. A strike would destroy

an entire house of two storeys. They shelled during night and

day. They hit so many houses. They’d hit one house and also

destroy the two houses on either side. They killed a huge

number of people.”

Mohamed from al-Tenak neighbourhood, west Mosul

5.1 SUMMARY

During the operation to retake west Mosul from IS, pro-government forces appear to have committed

repeated violations of international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes. As outlined

above, IS systematically displaced civilians into combat zones, used civilians as human shields and

prevented civilians from evacuating. Pro-government forces failed to adapt to the environment these

violations created, with large groups of civilians crowded into homes and makeshift shelters. Instead, pro-

government forces launched barrages of indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks using explosive weapons

unsuitable for such a densely populated urban area. The operation by pro-government forces to retake west

Mosul has taken a terrible toll on civilians.

The true death toll of the west Mosul battle may never be known. Firmly attributing responsibility for attacks

has proved challenging for monitoring groups tracking civilian casualties in west Mosul. However, according

to Airwars, one such monitoring group, between 19 February and 19 June 2017, attacks launched by Iraqi

and coalition forces may have caused the deaths of as many as 5,805 civilians. Even this figure may be an

underestimate, as it has been difficult for monitors to record deaths and injuries due to the intensity of the

fighting and the fact that IS has banned the use of mobile phones in areas under its control. On 2 June

2017, US Central Command stated that at least 484 civilians had been killed in both Iraq and Syria as a

Interview with Mohamed on 18 March 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

result of coalition air strikes since the beginning of Operation Inherent Resolve in June 2014.

For this

report, Amnesty International investigated and documented 45 attacks in west Mosul that it had reasonable

grounds to attribute to Iraqi government or US-led coalition forces. These 45 attacks alone killed at least 426

civilians and injured more than 100.

Pro-government

forces’ reliance upon explosive weapons with wide area effects, especially when delivered

by systems with crude targeting capabilities like IRAMs, made launching discriminate attacks in a densely

populated urban environment virtually impossible. IRAMs are inherently indiscriminate, and their use in a

densely populated area such as west Mosul invariably violates international humanitarian law. Elements

within pro-government forces also relied heavily on mortars, the accuracy of which depends upon the skill

level of the operating troops, but which in any event are not appropriate for use in the vicinity of

concentrations of civilians.

Delays in the targeting processes and IS mobility among civilians presented a

particular problem; in many cases pro-government forces hit targets after IS fighters had left the location.

Often the only people there when pro-government

forces’ weapons exploded were civilians who had

been

forbidden from moving.

Even in those attacks examined in this report in which pro-government forces appear to have struck their

intended military target, their 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 deadliest pro-government attack was the 17 March attack in Mosul al-Jadida neighbourhood in

which at least 105 civilians were killed by an air strike that targeted two IS snipers.

This attack was

exceptional only in the sense that it had such a high civilian death toll and the fact that

–

due to its high

profile

–

the US military investigated the incident and disclosed its findings. Similar failures have led to

scores of civilians being killed in west Mosul. Pro-government

forces’ reliance upon explosive weapons with

wide area effects against targets in heavily populated civilian areas and failure to take account of the

presence of civilians left a trail of deaths, injuries and destruction across west Mosul.

Pro-government forces also failed to take effective precautions to protect civilians when launching attacks.

Most people from west Mosul received some kind of warning prior to bombardments, usually in the form of

leaflets dropped from planes before shelling began. People were instructed to stay at home, conserve food

and stay away from IS. The warnings were ineffective, as staying away from IS was not possible for west

Mosul residents. Although pro-government forces were aware of the extent of civilian death and injury, they

failed to amend tactics significantly in order to reduce the toll.

While not diminishing these broader concerns, Amnesty International acknowledges that some interviewees

had positive accounts about the way they were treated by individual soldiers belonging to pro-government

forces. Some west Mosul residents appeared genuinely thankful to pro-government forces, particularly the

See US Central Command,

Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve monthly civilian casualty Report,

June 2017,

www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/1201013/combined-joint-task-force-operation-inherent-resolve-

monthly-civilian-casualty

Taken together, Amnesty International’s estimate of 426 civilians killed as a result of 45 Iraqi and coalition attacks and Airwars’ estimate of

5,805 civilians killed during only four months of the battle for west Mosul suggest that the US Central Command has significantly

underestimated the number of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces, notwithstanding the fact that Central Command is accounting

only for civilian deaths caused by coalition air strikes.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called for mortars not to be used in the vicinity of concentrations of civilians over the last 10 years,

notably in the context of conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire, Gaza, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. The International

Committee of the

Red Cross (ICRC) also considers mortars to be in the category of explosive weapons that should not be used in populated areas:

“In recent

and ongoing hostilities, artillery, mortars, air-delivered general purpose bombs, rockets and multiple launch rocket systems, among other

explosive weapons, have taken a terrible toll on civilians, causing death, injury, disability and trauma. The use of such weapons in

populated areas

–

where there is a strong likelihood of indiscriminate effects due to their imprecision or large blast and fragmentation range

– is unacceptable.” ICRC,

ICRC alarmed over unacceptable use of explosive weapons in urban areas,

13 October 2014,

www.icrc.org/en/document/explosive-weapons-in-urban-area

Operation Inherent Resolve,

Executive summary of the investigation of the alleged civilian casualty incident in the al Jadidah district,

Mosul,

25 May 2017, www.inherentresolve.mil/News/News-Releases/Article/1193707/executive-summary-of-the-investigation-of-the-

alleged-civilian-casualty-inciden/

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

CTS, and praised the fact that they had attempted to spare them from violence during the heat of battle. In

the words of one interviewee from al-Thawra neighbourhood:

The same day, the Iraqi forces came to al-Thawra neighbourhood. When the army was on the next

block, we ran to them. We put a white T-shirt in the air. The Iraqi forces fighter was a distance

away from us, and he was giving us signals on whether we could cross the street. He signalled in

the air with his hand: “five, four, three, two, one” –

and then we ran. When we reached him, he

had to sit down. He was good with us, and gave us water.

Interviewees also told Amnesty International that individual soldiers often showed kindness and respect to

them once areas had been retaken or they had managed to cross frontlines. This behaviour was usually

attributed to members of the CTS.

The following sections analyse pro-government attacks during the west Mosul operation that appear to have

violated international humanitarian law, including the prohibitions of indiscriminate and disproportionate

attacks, as well as failure to take necessary precautions in planning and executing attacks. Amnesty

International has chosen specific attacks as emblematic examples of wider patterns. With two exceptions,

the examples chosen are not mass casualty incidents which attracted media attention.

Instead, they are

representative of the more mundane, everyday reality of the west Mosul operation and its daily toll upon

civilian life and limb.

“GRADS” AND IRAMS

Pro-government

forces have used two different types of artillery rockets in west Mosul: “Grad” multiple

rocket launchers (“Grads”) and Improvised Rocket

Assisted Munitions (IRAMs).

“Grads”

The 122mm “Grad” is a vehicle-mounted

multiple-launch rocket system. Designed by the Soviet Union in

the 1960s, this unguided artillery rocket is currently manufactured in several countries and is one of the

most common area weapons in use around the world. A “Grad” vehicle carries 40 rockets, all of which

can be fired in under 30 seconds. “Grads” can be used to hit targets located 1,500m to 20,000m away.

“Grad” warheads contain

around 18kg of high explosives, and produce fragmentation which is potentially

lethal within a 180m radius. “Grad” rockets are not designed for precision fire at specific targets. Instead

they are used for “saturation fire”, where a large area is flooded

with many rockets impacting and

exploding. By design, “Grads” are indiscriminate weapons and they must never be used in the vicinity of

civilians.

IRAMs

Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions (IRAMs) are crude, locally made and unguided artillery rocket-type

weapons that combine military-grade

ordnance with makeshift or homemade components. Unlike “Grad”

rockets, which have a modest sized warhead and a long range, IRAMs have massive warheads and can

only fly short distances. At 90kg to 140kg, IRAM warheads

are five times larger than “Grads” and are

potentially lethal within a 245m radius. IRAMs typically are fitted with makeshift nose fuzes that often fail,

so many of these rockets remain on the battlefield as hazardous duds. IRAMs are wildly inaccurate,

unreliable, and indiscriminate weapons whose use should be prohibited. At a minimum they must never

be used near civilians.

Interview with “Saed” (real name withheld) on 10 May 2017.

These exceptions are the 17 March incident in Mosul al-Jadida and the 20 February attack on Khaled Ibn al-Waleed mosque in Wadi

Hajjar, which are analysed below.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Image © CNES 2017, Distribution AIRBUS US

5.2 INDISCRIMINATE, DISPROPORTIONATE AND OTHER

UNLAWFUL ATTACKS

Amnesty International investigated and documented 45 attacks in west Mosul which appeared

indiscriminate or disproportionate or otherwise unlawful and which it had reasonable grounds to attribute to

Iraqi government or US-led coalition forces. Sometimes the weapons that appeared to have been used

provided an indication as to who was responsible. Attacks by warplanes, helicopters, cannons, howitzers,

“Grad” multiple rocket launchers and IRAMs, for example, could only have been carried out by Iraqi

government or coalition forces as IS did not have access to this weaponry during the west Mosul operation.

As both sides were using mortars, these attacks were more difficult to attribute. In respect of many attacks,

Amnesty International could not be certain which weapon system was used, but was able to base attribution

on the position of front lines and the likely targets for attacks.

The 45 attacks documented by Amnesty International for this report killed at least 426 civilians and injured

more than 100. The 45 attacks occurred in neighbourhoods across west Mosul, namely al-Abar, al-Hermat,

al-Islah al-Ziraee, al-Manour, Mosul al-Jadida, al-Msherfa, al-Risala, al-Shifa, al-Shuhada, Tel Kheima, Tel al-

Rumman, al-Tenak, al-Thawra and Wadi al-Hajjar, as well as Qita al-Mrabba, an area which lies outside the

city.

This section of the report contains descriptions and analysis of nine of these 45 attacks.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

ATTACKS IN WHICH LIKELY TARGETS WERE NOT STRUCK

Amnesty International has documented a pattern of attacks in which pro-government forces appear not to

have struck their intended military targets, instead killing and injuring civilians and destroying or damaging

civilian objects. In some cases, the deaths and injuries appear to have resulted from a choice of weapons

that were inappropriate for the circumstances or failure to take necessary precautions to verify the target was

a military objective. The following four illustrative cases all appear to have been indiscriminate attacks or, in

the case of two of them, direct attacks on civilian objects.

AL-RISALA NEIGHBOURHOOD, EARLY-MID MARCH 2017

Witnesses told Amnesty International that in early-mid March (they could not be certain of the exact date), a

warplane hit two houses in al-Risala neighbourhood, near al-Hamdilullah mosque.

“Karim”,

a local

resident, described being at home at 11am on the day in question, sheltering from shelling in the back room

of his house. He heard an explosion nearby that was followed around 15 minutes later by a second one.

I later found out that the first explosion had hit a house on a street behind mine, perhaps 100m

away. It was an old house and it collapsed completely. Six people were killed, all civilians. They

were a simple family. Abdel Rahman was the owner and head of the family. He worked as a grave

digger. He was killed along with his wife and their four children. The children were aged four, five,

six and seven.

I didn’t go to the scene

of the first explosion but I ran to the scene of the second one. This one

destroyed a house on my street, less than 100m down. I didn’t see the

victims’ bodies; they were

buried in the rubble and we didn’t manage to dig them out. It was a rented house and

the owner

lived nearby. He had come to see the damage and was in the street shouting. He told us that three

people had been living there and they had all been killed. They were ordinary civilians, two women

and one man.

According to other witnesses, there had been an IS checkpoint on the corner of the street, around 25m from

Abdel Rahman’s house. The IS position was usually manned by three fighters, who according to the

witnesses, were all killed in the attack. After the first strike, IS fighters were seen running from the

neighbourhood. One witness saw two IS fighters running along his street, where the second explosion

happened. They had run past the house that was destroyed in the second explosion 10 minutes before it

was struck. They were not killed or injured in the explosion, as they had left the area by the time it

happened.

Amnesty International cannot be sure whether the delivery system for these explosions was a warplane, as

some of the witnesses assumed, or another weapon system.

Whatever delivery system was used, the

incident illustrates the toll on civilians of using explosive weapons with wide area effects in west Mosul. Six

civilians were killed in the first strike, which appears to have been aimed at an IS target that was stationary at

the time of attack. The target for the second strike is less clear, although witnesses told Amnesty

International they believe it was an attempt to hit mobile IS targets as they ran through the neighbourhood.

Three civilians and no IS fighters were killed in the second strike. Based on the information available, the

method of attack pro-government forces employed appears to have been indiscriminate.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Karim”

on 8 May 2017.

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 26 and 27 February 2017 the US-led coalition launched

five air strikes near Mosul which “engaged four ISIS tactical units and an ISIS staging area; [and] destroyed seven mortar systems”. Airwars,

Military reports

–

February 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-feb17/

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

In al-Resala, west Mosul, images show the area around the possible al-Hamdilullah Mosque. Two areas, highlighted with yellow boxes, appear destroyed in imagery from

STREET 20, AL-TENAK NEIGHBOURHOOD, AROUND 20 MARCH 2017

Amnesty International interviewed witnesses about an explosion in al-Tenak neighbourhood on 20 March

which they attributed to an air strike. The explosion caused two houses to collapse just off Street 20, killing

11 civilians. Witnesses told Amnesty International that the target was an IS flatbed truck with a mounted

machine-gun, which had been parked outside the houses that were struck. It had driven off and moved to

another area at least 40 minutes before the attack. One of the witnesses, a local resident called “Imad”,

went to the scene of the explosion. He told Amnesty International:

I know the people killed in those houses. They were simple people. They were working in

construction. A painter decorator was killed in one house with his three children and his

Real name withheld.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

grandmother. In the other house a carpenter was killed along with his 30-year-old wife and their

four children. All the children killed were between three and eight years old.

This was not the only strike in the area targeting the IS vehicle, according to people displaced from the area.

The vehicle had been moving around the neighbourhood for around 20 days during the period between 5

and 30 March 2017. Pro-government forces kept trying to hit it as it moved around, carrying out at least

seven strikes on the neighbourhood and killing many more civilians

–

men, women and children. They told

Amnesty International that pro-government forces did not succeed in hitting the truck.

Amnesty International was not able to verify whether the delivery system used in this series of attacks was a

warplane or whether the same type of weapon was used in each attack.

Whatever the weapons used in this

case, it appears to be part of a pattern of attacks by pro-government forces using explosive weapons with

wide area effects to try to strike highly mobile targets in densely populated areas of west Mosul. Such

reckless tactics repeatedly claimed civilian lives and destroyed homes and civilian infrastructure. Based

upon the information available, this attack appears to have been indiscriminate.

Interview with

“Imad”

on 5 May 2017.

According to the UK Ministry of Defence, on 20 March 2017 British forces carried out air strikes which

“bombed

a strong-point in the

west of the city, and… struck two Daesh positions, including one from which heavy machine-gun

fire was being directed at the

Iraqis.”

Airwars,

Military reports

–

March 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-mar17

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Major damage is visible in the al-Tenak neighbourhood

near Souq Ma’esh between 19 January 2017 and

15 April 2017. Areas with significant damage are highlighted

AL-THAWRA NEIGHBOURHOOD, 20 APRIL 2017

According to “Mustafa”,

a young father displaced to al-Thawra neighbourhood from elsewhere in west

Mosul, at around 8.30am on 20 April, an IS fighter entered the house where he had taken shelter in al-

Thawra neighbourhood via a hole in the wall. IS had made holes in the walls of adjoining houses so they

could enter and exit at will and without being seen from above. The IS fighter walked through the house and

exited into the street via the main gate. An hour later, at around 9.30am, there was a strike on the house.

Mustafa told Amnesty International:

Real name withheld.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

I was sitting in the back room of the house, the one furthest away from the street. I was smoking a

cigarette and drinking a cup of tea with some cake. My sister came into the room and I moved over

and told her to come and sit next to me. She sat down next to me and at that moment the

explosion happened. I don’t know for sure that it was a strike from a plane but that’s what our

neighbours told us. Perhaps they knew from the sound.

The house was near the Palestinian school. It had two-storeys, with two downstairs rooms and one upstairs

room. Due to heavy population concentration in areas under IS control, there were 104 people in the house

at the time, attempting to huddle for safety in the corners of rooms. Two people were killed, including

Mustafa’s

27-year-old nephew, who was pulled out of the rubble, taken to an IS-run hospital and left to

bleed to death after hospital personnel told the family there were no doctors available to treat him. Almost

everyone in the house was injured in some way, some severely, including a 40-year-old man who suffered

spinal injuries that left him paralysed.

The likely intended target of the attack had left the house one hour before the strike occurred, leaving only

civilians as victims. Another witness,

“Khaled”,

from al-Hermat, described the situation:

IS used our houses. If there were planes in the sky they’d come in through the front door.

Otherwise they’d use the openings [the holes IS made in people’s houses to be able to come and

go unnoticed

by drones in the sky]. They’d enter a house, go up to the roof and shoot at the

helicopters or in the direction of Iraqi forces’ positions. Then they’d leave. Fifteen minutes

later the

house would be hit. But we knew their [pro-government

forces’] behaviour.

As soon as IS left the

house after shooting we’d collect our families and go as quickly as we could to another house. We’d

run through the openings just like IS does and into someone else’s house.

Based upon the information available, this attack appears to be either a direct attack on a civilian object or

an attack which should have been cancelled because the intended target was no longer present. A strike in

which there was such a failure to take feasible precautions could amount to an indiscriminate attack.

Interview with

“Mustafa”

on 10 May 2017.

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 20 April 2017 the US-led coalition launched six strikes

near Mosul which

“engaged

seven ISIS tactical units, destroyed 11 rocket-propelled grenade systems, seven fighting positions, six VBIEDs,

five mortar systems, three VBIED facilities, a weapons cache, a medium machine gun and an ISIS staging area”.

Airwars,

Military reports

–

April 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-apr17/

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

Real name withheld.

Interview

with “Khaled”

on 12 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Between 00 April 2017 and 28 May 2017, imagery shows al-Tharwa neighbourhood around a building likely to be the Palestine School. Damage and collapsed buildings

–

highlighted with yellow boxes

–

AL-MSHERFA NEIGHBOURHOOD, 4 MAY 2017

Amnesty International interviewed two witnesses to an attack in al-Msherfa on 4 May. At around 4pm they

heard an explosion they described as “a dull thumping sound” amid shelling and other explosions. They

were unable to go directly to the scene of the explosion, as IS was attempting to fight off the advance by pro-

government forces. Only once the fighting died down at around 7pm were they able to go to the scene. The

house that had been hit was around 30m from the witnesses’ house, between Street 30 and the

al-Rahman

mosque. One of the witnesses described the scene as follows:

I went with my dad. The house had been flattened. There had been two families in the house: a

total of 14 people. We pulled three survivors out of the rubble and two dead people. The father of

one of the families was Dalal. He was a 50 to 55-year-old electrician and was married to Adala.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Their 13-year-old son, Ishaq, was killed and so was his 15-year-old son, Hashem. Adala survived

and so did Dalal and Rihab, their 16-year-old daughter. We pulled Dalal and Adala out of the

rubble. When the Iraqi forces came they managed to pull Rihab out. I think they are in an Erbil

hospital.

I didn’t know the other family in the house so well but the father was called Mohamed. He was

between 30 and 35 years of age and worked as a builder. He was killed, along with his wife and six

of their seven children. The only one that survived was 10-year-old Waleed. One of the bodies that

we pulled out was Shahed, Mohamed’s 14-year-old

daughter.

According to witnesses there were usually IS fighters in the area near the house that was destroyed. The

witnesses had not been outside after the fighting intensified but there were usually four or five groups of two

or more IS fighters in the neighbourhood. They were never in one place; they moved around the

neighbourhood carrying guns and mortars. Witnesses do not believe that the attack killed any IS fighters;

nine of the 14 civilians in the house were killed. Whatever weapons system was used, this incident

demonstrates the deadly toll of the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated

west Mosul.

Although Amnesty International was unable to establish the exact target for this attack, the

information available suggests that no legitimate target was struck. This attack appears to have been

indiscriminate or a direct attack on a civilian object.

ATTACKS IN WHICH LIKELY TARGETS WERE STRUCK

Amnesty International has documented a pattern of attacks in which pro-government forces appear to have

struck their intended military targets, but did not do what was required to minimize harm to civilians, killing

scores of civilians, injuring others and destroying and damaging civilian objects. The following five examples

are possible disproportionate attacks and emblematic of wider patterns.

AL-SHUHADA NEIGHBOURHOOD, 13 JANUARY 2017

On 13 January at around 8.15am, explosions destroyed nine dwellings in al-Shuhada neighbourhood.

“Kamel”

and “Hashem”,

two 26-year-old men from the area, described what they believe was a

helicopter strike,

which destroyed Kamel’s uncle’s house.

They said the helicopter fired three times, with

each rocket it launched destroying three single-room dwellings. Nine dwellings were destroyed in total.

“Hashem”

described the attack as follows:

I was close by at my mother’s house. We were eating breakfast. At 8.15am and without warning the

first rocket struck the homes, followed by two others. Each came from a different direction. It was

all over in five or 10 minutes. After the last rocket landed we ran down to the scene. We were

scared but we’re Arabs and if there are dead people we must go down to them. We dug the bodies

out. We pulled them out of the rubble. They were torn apart. Heads and arms had been severed.

The target was a well-known IS commander called Harbi Abdel Gadir. He was killed, along with

almost everyone else in the homes: more than 40 people. All the women and children were killed.

There were only three survivors, Mohamed, Asher and Salman. They were taken to an IS-run

hospital.

100

Interview

with “Ibn Mohamed”

(real name withheld) on 10 May 2017.

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 4 May 2017 the US-led coalition launched seven strikes

near Mosul which

“engaged

seven ISIS tactical units and a sniper team; destroyed nine mortar systems, nine fighting positions, two heavy

machine guns, two tactical vehicles, [and] two ISIS-held

buildings.”

Airwars,

Military reports

–

May 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-may17

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to the incident.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hashem”

on 4 May 2017.

100

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

According to the witnesses, this strike killed one IS target at a cost of 40 civilian lives.

101

Based upon the

information available, this attack should be investigated as a possible disproportionate attack.

Before the major assault on west Mosul began, an area in al-Shuhada neighbourhood shows signs of damage and destruction in imagery from 19 January 2017.

KHALED IBN AL-WALEED MOSQUE, ON OR AROUND 20 FEBRUARY 2017

An attack struck Khaled Ibn al-Waleed mosque, in Wadi Hajjar, at close to 3pm on or around 20 February

(witnesses could not be sure of the exact date). The mosque is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood

near Sawas Roundabout. “Hadi”,

102

a witness from the area, told Amnesty International that 60-70 people

were praying inside the mosque. The mosque was hit by up to five rockets, causing the roof to collapse and

destroying two nearby houses. A second round of strikes were carried out a few minutes after the first. Hadi

attributed the damage to an air strike, having heard aircraft in the sky.

103

I was 500m away from the mosque, and I heard the planes come and the sounds of the rockets. I

went directly to the site, and I started dragging people out of the rubble. I pulled out at least 30

people, and we sent them to al-Jamhouri hospital. We had some ambulances, but mostly we were

using small trucks. Everyone was shouting, and crying. I heard two of them under the rubble,

moaning, and I found them. Then I found three more who were dead. Then I found one who was

almost dead. I saw one, who was dead, stuck in the rubble up to his waist. Dozens were injured. I

don’t know how many died, but I saw at least four dead with my own eyes.

104

101

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 13 January 2017, the coalition launched four strikes near

Mosul which “engaged

an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed four fighting positions, two heavy machine guns, two watercraft, an ISIL headquarters

building, a VBIED; and damaged eight supply routes”.

Airwars,

Military reports

–

January 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-jan17/

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

102

103

Real name withheld.

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 20 February 2017 the coalition launched six strikes near

Mosul which, “engaged

two ISIS tactical units; destroyed 11 mortar systems, three ISIS headquarters, three ISIS-held buildings, two anti-air

artillery systems, two tactical vehicles, two supply caches, a front-end loader,

a fighting position, a weapons facility, a VBIED and an IED”.

Airwars,

Military reports

–

February 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-feb17/

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

104

Interview with

“Hadi”

on 4 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

According to Hadi, at the time of the strike a car belonging to the Hesba police (religious police) of IS was

parked outside the mosque. The car was painted in the distinctive black and white colours of IS and easily

recognizable. He said that some IS fighters

–

no more than one or two of them

–

were praying inside. The

strike appears to have been an attempt to target the IS vehicle and the fighters inside the mosque.

105

Although Amnesty International cannot be sure how many IS fighters were impacted by the attack, the high

civilian death toll and the nature of the objects that were struck raises the likelihood that it was a

disproportionate attack.

MOSUL AL-JADIDA, 17 MARCH 2017

Air strikes by the US-led coalition killed at least 105 people in buildings in Mosul al-Jadida on 17 March.

Independent sources who were in Mosul al-Jadida at the time told Amnesty International that a series of air

strikes were carried out from 8am until 5pm on the day in question. One source returned to the site in the

days that followed and visited a collapsed building from which 70 dead bodies had been retrieved.

106

Another source in Mosul al-Jadida at the time spoke

in more general terms, telling Amnesty International: “If

there was one IS fighter in a house they’d hit it and they’d kill at least 50 civilians… at least 50.”

107

Sources

told Amnesty International that the air strikes had been called in by Iraqi Special Operation II (Counter-

Terrorism Service) commandos who were struggling to advance into Mosul al-Jadida as their access was

impeded by IS snipers. They requested the air strikes to clear the snipers and allow them to push forward.

On 25 May 2017 the US Department

of Defense released the “Executive Summary of the Investigation of the

Alleged Civilian Casualty Incident in the Al Jadidah

District, Mosul”, in which it accepted that the deaths

were caused by air strikes from a US plane and had targeted two IS snipers on the roof of the building.

108

According to the statement, the air strikes were carried out in support of a CTS operation and the munition

deployed was a GPS-guided GBU-38 bomb. The US investigation also found that the impact of the air strike

was exacerbated by the fact that the bomb had set off explosives planted by IS, causing secondary

explosions and leading to the building’s

collapse.

109

Amnesty International has not been able to verify

whether secondary explosions occurred. Whether or not there were secondary explosions, Amnesty

International is concerned that the GBU-38 was an excessively large bomb to use against a target of this

nature. Even if the planners could not have anticipated the secondary explosions, it should have been clear

that the choice of a 500-pound bomb, containing the equivalent of 190 pounds of TNT, to strike two snipers

on a building full of civilians was likely to cause harm to civilians that would be excessive in relation to the

military advantage, and therefore it would be a disproportionate attack.

105

According to a source quoted in international media, 43 civilians were killed by the strike on the mosque. See Voice of America,

‘Street

turned to rubble shows cost of fight for Iraq’s Mosul’,

12 April 2017, www.voanews.com/a/street-rubble-cost-fight-mosul-iraq-islamic-

state/3807375.html

106

107

108

Interview with a confidential source on 13 May 2017.

Interview

with “Kamel”

on 4 May 2017.

Operation Inherent Resolve,

Executive summary of the investigation of the alleged civilian casualty incident in the Al Jadidah district,

Mosul,

25 May 2017, www.inherentresolve.mil/News/News-Releases/Article/1193707/executive-summary-of-the-investigation-of-the-

alleged-civilian-casualty-inciden/

109

Operation Inherent Resolve,

Executive summary of the investigation of the alleged civilian casualty incident in the Al Jadidah district,

Mosul,

25 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

17 March 2017. The Red Ring marks an area of 102m. This is the area where the overpressure from a GBU-38 is hazardous to people outdoors.

Purple ring marks an area of 245m. This is the area affected by hazardous fragmentation from a GBU-38. © GoogleEarthPro

AL-ISLAH AL-ZIRAEE, MID-APRIL

In mid-April presumed air strikes destroyed a house on al-Islah al-Ziraee Street, next to a local landmark

known as the Mahmoud water well and not far from Yarmouk Roundabout. Amnesty International

interviewed “Ali”,

110

a witness who was living in a house 100m away in the same street. He described the

attack:

At around 5pm we heard a whizzing, whistling sound and then a huge explosion that knocked us

sideways. This was followed by a second explosion after about two minutes. I waited until the

following morning before going to the scene. The entire house had been destroyed. The bodies

were still buried. I asked the neighbours what had happened and they said that IS had been inside

the house before the strike. The brother of the family had not been at home at the time. He

survived but he lost his entire family. Fifteen civilians were killed in that house.

111

The witness did not know exactly how many IS fighters had been inside the house when it was destroyed.

From other interviews, Amnesty International is aware that IS fighters would roam neighbourhoods and enter

civilian houses at will. They would usually travel in pairs, presumably in order to reduce the chance that a

single strike would kill many fighters. This strike killed 15 civilians and raises proportionality concerns.

Although Amnesty International cannot confirm how many IS fighters were impacted, established patterns of

IS behaviour would suggest that the number was small. This, coupled with the high cost to civilian life, raises

the possibility that this attack was disproportionate.

STREET 20, AL-TENAK NEIGHBOURHOOD, 19 OR 20 APRIL

Amnesty International interviewed witnesses to an attack on a civilian house on Street 20 in al-Tenak

neighbourhood on either 19 or 20 April 2017. One of the witnesses was “Mohamed”,

112

the house owner.

110

111

112

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Ali”

on 14 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

He had escaped from the area the night before. He learned on the telephone the following day that IS had

taken over the house he had abandoned and that, as a result, it had become the target of air strikes. The air

strikes destroyed the house containing the IS fighters. It also destroyed an adjoining house with a family

inside. The houses were struck three times; two strikes occurred in quick succession and a third was carried

out a short time later while rescue efforts were ongoing. Amnesty International also spoke to two other

witnesses,

one of whom “Hamza” described going to the scene:

We were still in al-Tenak neighbourhood. The two homes were adjoining each other. After the

second bombing, my son Mohamed went to the scene and tried to pull the bodies out of the

rubble. One of the occupants, Mohamed Diab, was only buried from the waist down. My son

Mohamed put his arms under Mohamed Diab’s armpits and tried to pull him free. They succeeded

and Mohamed Diab survived. He was the only survivor from the house. While my son and the other

civil defence lads were trying to dig out the others the plane came around again and struck again

[for a third time]. It killed one of the [civil defence] lads.

113

The first two strikes killed the IS fighters but they also killed the entire family living next door. The third strike

killed one of the first responders. Amnesty International is concerned that the choice of munitions in this

attack resulted in the destruction of a house full of civilians, as well as the decision to launch a third strike,

once the houses had already been destroyed.

114

Based upon available information, there are reasons to

suspect that the first two strikes may have been disproportionate. The third strike raises the possibility that

rescuers and the injured may have been deliberately targeted.

5.3 FAILURE TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS IN ATTACK

EFFECTIVE WARNINGS

Parties to the armed conflict in west Mosul, including pro-government forces, were under an obligation to

take precautions in attack, in order to protect civilians. This includes providing effective advance warning of

attacks that may affect the civilian population. The majority of people displaced from west Mosul and

interviewed by Amnesty International had received some kind of warning prior to bombardments. The

warnings were made by television and radio in the weeks and months leading up to the operation. Usually,

around two weeks before shelling commenced in a particular neighbourhood, planes would drop leaflets for

people to read. Amnesty International spoke to people from the following neighbourhoods who had seen or

were aware of the leaflets: al-Hermat, Mosul al-Jadida, al-Msherfa, al-Risala, al-Shuhada, al-Tenak, al-

Thawra, Wadi Hajjar, al-Yarmouk and al-Zinjili. Amnesty International also interviewed people from villages

outside west Mosul, all of whom had seen or were aware of leaflets dropped in their neighbourhoods before

the shelling began.

Some of the warnings were intended for IS, instructing them to put down their weapons. Those intended for

civilians typically informed them that pro-government forces were going to rescue them from IS. They

instructed people not to leave their homes, making sure their children were always at home, to stay away

from doors and windows and to conserve food and water. Warnings also told people to stay away from IS

fighters and positions. Some people reported receiving leaflets telling them to make sure their children were

always at home and to hang children’s clothing on the roofs in order to distinguish their homes from IS

houses (see below).

For a warning to be effective, it has to be suited to the environment, specific and practical. Warnings on

television and radio did not reach a wide audience because IS prohibited TV and radio, although a few

people kept clandestine sets. Leaflets reached more people, despite IS threatening to kill anyone they caught

113

114

Interview with

“Hamza”

on 8 May 2017.

According to the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, on 19 April 2017 the coalition launched seven strikes near

Mosul which “engaged

four ISIS tactical units and destroyed five VBIEDs, five front-end loaders, four mortar systems, a medium machine

gun and a VBIED factory”.

Airwars,

Military reports

–

April 2017,

airwars.org/daily-reports-apr17/

Amnesty International cannot confirm whether these strikes are related to this incident.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

reading them. According to 43-year-old

“Abu Omran”

115

from al-Zinjili

neighbourhood: “There were flyers,

and they said to stay away from IS fighters and IS checkpoints. But if they found out that you had read the

flyer, they would kill you without hesitation.”

116

Another interviewee, 32-year-old Samah from al-Hermat,

explained: “We would try to follow the situation to find out what was happening, all behind the backs of IS.

There were flyers dropped in

our neighbourhood, but IS would execute anyone with a flyer in their hands.”

117

The message on the leaflets took little account of the realities of living under IS. Staying away from IS was not

a possibility for west Mosul residents. According to witnesses,

IS would enter people’s homes at will and stay

as long as they pleased. Sometimes they entered via the front door; often they used custom-made holes in

the walls of houses allowing them free access. As one west Mosul resident explained:

They were walking from house to house, and saying which houses were selected to make the food.

They would give them the supplies and tell them, “At this time, you must be sure to have the food

ready.” That way, they could stop by to eat during the fighting, and pick up the

food.

118

At least some of the leaflets dropped instructed people to hang children’s clothes on the roofs of their houses

to show that they were civilian houses with children inside. Despite this, Amnesty International spoke to

people whose houses had been

bombed, despite having children’s clothes on the roof. One al-Tenak

resident, “Yazen”,

119

whose house was bombed on 15 April 2017 while he was at home with his wife and

children told Amnesty International:

The Iraqi forces had told us to stay in our houses. IS were in a house across the street from us.

Someone must have informed the Iraqi forces. I had hung my children’s clothes on the roof of our

home so that the Iraqi forces would know that it was a family home, not an IS home. The children’s

clothes were on the roof when the rocket landed on my house.

120

Other interviewees believed that different pro-government forces had different approaches to warnings and

precautions in attack. “Hadi”

121

from al-Hermat told Amnesty International:

IS always hid in amongst

families because the US planes wouldn’t strike houses if they saw clothes

on the roofs. Instead the Iraqi helicopters would come and they didn’t make that distinction. They

[pro-government forces] would also use artillery, which would usually hit 15 minutes after IS had

fired from a position. We knew to run as soon as they fired as the house would be hit.

122

One interviewee, 26-year-old

“Kamel”

123

from Mosul al-Jadida, seemed to capture collective sentiment about

the value of the warnings as effective precautions

in attack as follows: “Leaflets were dropped continuously

beforehand with warnings telling people to stay at home but these were useless. Make sure you write that

down. The. Warnings. Were. Useless.”

124

CHANGING TACTICS

Effective precautions in attack also require adapting tactics to changing circumstances to ensure attacks are

not indiscriminate or disproportionate. Medics have been overwhelmed by the increase in civilian casualties

arriving at medical centres from west Mosul. Exact numbers are unclear, but the nature of injuries suffered

by west Mosul civilians indicate the price civilians are paying for pro-government

forces’

persistent reliance

on inappropriate means and methods of warfare.

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Abu Omran”

on 5 May 2017.

Interview with Samah on 8 May 2017.

Interview with

“Abeer”

on 12 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Yazan” (real name withheld)

on 8 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Hadi”

on 12 May 2017.

Real name withheld.

Interview with

“Kamel”

on 4 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

Patients arriving from east Mosul typically displayed relatively straightforward trauma wounds, including

single fractures and penetrating injuries caused by gunshots or fragmentation from explosive weapons.

Health professionals have noted that patients from west Mosul, on the other hand, often had blast-related

injuries and compound fractures, including multiple penetrating injuries and polytraumas. They have

observed a particular increase in numbers of crush injuries and burns, a phenomenon associated with the

use of powerful explosive weapons in civilian areas. Surgical operations for patients arriving from west Mosul

have tended to require more time and be more complex than for those arriving from the east of the city.

125

The injuries and deaths are attributable to two factors: IS preventing civilians from leaving areas of military

operations in order to use them as human shields and pro-government forces relying on explosive munitions

with wide area effects. It is inconceivable that pro-government forces were unaware of IS tactics and the

concentration of civilians in areas coming under attack. It is also inconceivable that pro-government forces

were unaware of the terrible cost to civilians of using overhead explosive ordnance in these areas, especially

as the conflict progressed and the hospitals and health centres filled up with patients suffering blast and

crush injuries. The same pro-government forces pulled injured civilians out of the rubble and transported

them to hospitals in their thousands.

126

On only one occasion during the period under review does it appear that pro-government forces did change

tactics in west Mosul: the US-led coalition temporarily halted air strikes in response to the 17 March

bombing in Mosul al-Jadida and reportedly reconsidered tactics. Amnesty International has been informed

that a decision was made to lighten payloads as a result of the attack, although the Pentagon statement

released on 25 May 2017 made no mention of this.

127

Otherwise, Amnesty International found no evidence

that tactics had been changed, as pro-government forces continued their reliance on artillery, mortars and

IRAMs, all of which are less precise than air strikes using precision-guided munitions and are likely to have

killed and injured far more people.

125

Interview with sources working within the humanitarian response for Mosul on 15 May 2017 and email correspondence with them on 28

May 2017.

126

While exact figures are not available, sources working within the humanitarian response for Mosul indicated that they received many

thousands of injured civilians from west Mosul since the beginning of the operation. Interview with health professionals on 15 May 2017

and email correspondence with them on 28 May 2017.

127

Interview with a confidential source linked to Iraqi and coalition forces on 12 June 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

6. INTERNATIONAL

HUMANITARIAN LAW AND

WAR CRIMES

International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, sets out rules that legally bind all parties to armed conflict,

whether state armed forces or non-state armed groups. These rules aim to minimize human suffering, and

offer particular protection to civilians and those who are not directly participating in hostilities. Iraq is a state

party to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocol of 1977 relating to the Protection

of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).

The rules of customary international humanitarian law

128

, including all those cited in this report, are legally

binding on all parties to the non-international armed conflict in Iraq, namely members of the US-led

coalition, Iraqi armed forces and security forces, government-backed militias and IS. States have an

obligation to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war, to bring to justice those responsible for war

crimes, and to ensure reparation for the victims of violations.

6.1 THE RULES OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

DISTINCTION AND PROPORTIONALITY

A fundamental rule of international humanitarian law is that parties to any conflict must at all times

“distinguish between civilians and combatants”, especially in that “attacks may

only be directed against

combatants” and “must not be directed against civilians”.

129

A similar rule requires parties to distinguish

between “civilian objects” and “military objectives”. These rules are part of the fundamental principle of

distinction.

For the purposes of distinction, anyone who is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict is

a civilian, and the civilian population comprises all persons who are not combatants.

130

Civilians are

protected against attack unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.

131

Civilian objects are all objects (that is, buildings, structures, places, and other physical property or

environments) which are not “military objectives”, and military objectives are “limited to those objects

which

128

For an authoritative list of these rules see International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),

Customary International Humanitarian Law:

Volume 1: Rules,

J-M Henckaerts and L Doswald-Beck, eds, 2005 (hereinafter: ICRC,

Customary IHL Study).

129

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 1. See also Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the

Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), Article 48, and Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12

August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), Article 12(2).

130

131

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 5; see also Protocol I, Article 50.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 6; see also Protocol I, Article 51(3); Protocol II, Article 13(3).

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose partial

or total destruction, capture or neutralisation, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military

advantage”.

132

Civilian objects are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they become military

objectives because all of the criteria for a military objective just described become temporarily fulfilled.

133

cases of doubt whether an object that is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship,

a house or other dwelling, or a school, is being used for military purposes, it is to be presumed not to be so

used.

134

Intentionally directing attacks against civilians not taking direct part in hostilities or against civilian objects is

a war crime.

135

The principle of distinction also includes a specific rule that “acts or threats of violence the

primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited”.

136

The corollary of the

rule of distinction is that “indiscriminate attacks are prohibited”.

137

Indiscriminate attacks

are those that are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction,

either because the attack is not directed at a specific military objective, or because it employs a method or

means of combat that cannot be directed at a specific military objective or has effects that cannot be limited

as required by international humanitarian law.

138

International humanitarian law

also prohibits disproportionate attacks, which are those “which may be

expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a

combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage

anticipated”.

139

Intentionally launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in death or injury to civilians, or a

disproportionate attack (that is, knowing that the attack will cause excessive incidental civilian loss, injury or

damage) constitutes a war crime.

140

In addition to benefiting from the protection accorded civilians and civilian objects, certain persons and

objects are afforded special protection under international humanitarian law. Medical personnel and medical

transports must be respected and protected in all circumstances.

141

Humanitarian relief personnel and

humanitarian relief objects must be respected and protected.

142

And “special care must be taken in military

operations to avoid damage to buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, education or charitable purposes

and historic monuments unless

they are military objectives”.

143

PRECAUTIONS

The protection of the civilian population and civilian objects is further underpinned by the requirement that

all parties to a

conflict take precautions in attack. In the conduct of military operations, then, “constant care

must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects”; “all feasible precautions” must

be taken to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian

objects.

144

The parties must choose means and methods of warfare with a view to avoiding, and in any event

to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

145

Everything

feasible must be done to verify that targets are military objectives, to assess the proportionality of attacks,

and to halt attacks if it becomes apparent they are wrongly directed or disproportionate.

146

Where

132

133

134

135

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 8 and 9; Protocol I, Article 52.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 10.

Protocol I, Article 52(3). See also ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

pp. 34-36.

ICRC,

Customary IHL

Study, Rule 156, pp. 591,593,595-598. See also Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Articles

8(2)(b)(i) and (ii) and 8(2)(e)(i)(ii)(iv) and (xii). See also discussion in ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

p. 27.

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 2; see also Protocol I, Article 51(2) and Protocol II, Article 12(2).

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 11; Protocol I, Article 51(4).

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 12; Protocol I, Article 51(4)(a).

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 14; Protocol I, Articles 51(5)(b) and 57.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 156, pp. 599-601.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 26 and 29.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 31 and 32.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 38.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 15. See also Protocol II, Article 13(1).

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 17.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 16-19.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

circumstances permit, parties must give effective advance warning of attacks which may affect the civilian

population.

147

Parties must choose appropriate means and methods of attack when military targets are located within

residential areas. This requirement rules out the use of certain types of weapons and tactics. The use of

means of combat (such as using imprecise explosive weapons on targets located in densely populated

civilian areas) that cannot be directed at a specific military objective may result in indiscriminate attacks and

is prohibited. The use of mortars, artillery, and improvised rockets in populated civilian neighbourhoods of

west Mosul

–

even if intended to target military objectives

–

violates this prohibition. Choosing methods of

attack that do not minimize the risk to civilians (for example, attacking objectives at times when many

civilians are most likely to be present) also violate international humanitarian law.

Attacks by both government forces and armed groups that are carried out in the knowledge that they will

cause massive civilian casualties and destruction of civilian objects violate the prohibition on indiscriminate

attacks and can constitute war crimes.

Warring parties have obligations to take precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects under their

control against the effects of attacks by the adversary. As with precautions in attack, these rules are

particularly important when fighting is taking place in areas with large numbers of civilians. Each party to the

conflict must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated

areas.

148

However, Article 50(3) of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating

to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), states: “The presence within the

civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the

population of its civilian character.” The fact that military checkpoints, bases or military equipment may be

located within civilian areas does not in any way negate the obligation of pro-government

forces’ and IS with

respect to civilians, including the principle of distinction, the prohibition on indiscriminate and

disproportionate attacks, and the precautions detailed above.

FUNDAMENTAL GUARANTEES AND THE PROHIBITION OF USING HUMAN

SHIELDS

International humanitarian law also provides fundamental guarantees for civilians as well as fighters or

combatants who are captured, injured or otherwise rendered unable to fight (hors

de combat).

Between

them, Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law

include the following rules: murder is prohibited; humane treatment is required; discrimination in application

of the protections of international humanitarian law is prohibited; torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and

outrages on personal dignity (particularly humiliating and degrading treatment) are prohibited, as are

enforced disappearances, the taking of hostages, and arbitrary detention. No one may be convicted or

sentenced except pursuant to a fair trial affording all essential judicial guarantees. Collective punishments

are also prohibited.

149

Depending on the particular rule in question, many or all acts that violate these rules

will constitute war crimes.

150

As documented in this report, the conduct of IS towards civilians under its control flagrantly violated

fundamental guarantees of international humanitarian law. Civilians were summarily killed if they tried to flee

from IS-controlled areas. And they were routinely used to try to shield IS fighters and military assets from

attack. This type of tactic, known as using human shields is strictly prohibited and a war crime.

151

It perverts

147

148

149

150

151

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 20.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 23; see also Protocol I, Article 58(b).

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 87-105.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 156.

Article 28 of Geneva Convention IV provides that “[t]he presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points

or areas

immune from military operations.” Article 51(7) of Protocol I specifies: “[T]he presence or movements of the civilian population or individual

civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military

objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the

civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military

operations.” See

also ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 97 and 156.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

a fundamental principle of international humanitarian law

–

distinction

–

intentionally placing civilians at

greater risk in order to protect military assets or, failing that, to exploit the vulnerability of civilians for

propaganda purposes. In order to ensure its supply of civilians to use as shields, IS forcibly moved civilians

from areas that were about to fall into the hands of pro-government forces to IS-controlled areas that were

coming under attack. This also violated the prohibition on displacing civilians except for their own security or

for imperative military reasons.

152

Of course, the fact that IS has been using civilians as human shields does not relieve pro-government forces

of their duty to comply with international humanitarian law, including the absolute prohibition on directly

attacking civilians.

6.2 WAR CRIMES

Serious violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes. Some of the crimes that are relevant to

the violations documented in this report include: making the civilian population or individual civilians not

directly participating in hostilities the object of attack; ordering the displacement of civilians for reasons

related to the conflict and not required for the security of the civilians involved or imperative military

necessity; making civilian objects the object of attack; launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in death

or injury to civilians, or an attack in the knowledge that it will cause excessive incidental civilian loss, injury or

damage; and using human shields.

153

Under international humanitarian law, individuals are criminally responsible for war crimes they commit.

154

Military commanders and civilian superiors are criminally responsible for war crimes committed by their

subordinates if they ordered such acts or if they knew, or had reason to know, such crimes were about to be

committed or were being committed and did not take the necessary measures to prevent their commission,

or to punish persons responsible for crimes that had already been committed.

155

All states have the right to vest universal jurisdiction in their national courts over war crimes committed in

other states.

156

They must investigate war crimes over which they have jurisdiction and, if appropriate,

prosecute the suspects.

157

152

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 129; and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8(2)(e)(viii), characterizing

unjustified forced displacement of civilians as a war crime, www.icccpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-

0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf

153

154

155

156

157

For a list and explanation of war crimes in non-international armed conflict, see ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 156.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 151.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rules 152 and 153.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 157.

ICRC,

Customary IHL Study,

Rule 158.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

7. CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

IS committed egregious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses before and

during the battle for west Mosul. The group forced civilians to move into the conflict zone, used them as

human shields and prevented their evacuation. IS has also imposed appalling conditions on the civilians in

their territory, barred their access to medical care and adequate food, and summarily killed those who

attempted to escape.

IS’s treatment of civilians is horrifying, and its tactics posed significant difficulty for pro-government

forces in

west Mosul. Yet IS’s use of human shields does not lessen the burden

upon pro-government forces to select

lawful targets and to strike them in a way that is not indiscriminate or disproportionate. In this densely

populated urban environment, military planners should have taken extra care in targeting and their choice of

weapons to ensure that attacks were not unlawful. Instead, Amnesty International identified a pattern of

attacks carried out by pro-government forces that indicate the commission of repeated violations of

international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes. These attacks had disastrous

consequences for civilians in west Mosul.

Many Mosul residents expressed to Amnesty International grave concerns about the future of Mosul and

Iraq. According to Musab, “This war will guarantee there will be fighting again.”

158

“Hashem” added: “There

is zero chance of a future here in Iraq. There is no point in rebuilding anything as it will all be destroyed

again… The cheapest thing in Iraq is a human being.”

159

When asked to describe the situation in Iraq,

“Hussein” said, “It is a circle of violence that never ends.”

160

Their fears are well founded: if pro-government

forces fail to protect civilians in Mosul, there is a real risk that this battle will form one more chapter in a

seemingly endless cycle of devastating conflict and atrocities in Iraq. Iraqi forces and members of the US-led

coalition must ensure that the fight against IS

–

not only in the fight for Mosul, but in other battles in Iraq and

in Syria

–

is fought in a way that is consistent with international law and standards. Civilians trapped by

conflict and abused by IS must be treated with the dignity and humanity they deserve.

158

159

160

Interview with Musab on 10 May 2017.

Interview with

“Hashem”

on 5 May 2017.

Interview with

“Hussein”

on 5 May 2017.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

In the light of the findings in this report, Amnesty International is making a number of recommendations to

the parties to the conflict in Mosul, as well as to other key actors that have an influence on the situation

there.

IRAQI AUTHORITIES AND MEMBER STATES OF THE US-LED COALITION

Amnesty International makes the following recommendations to the Iraqi authorities and member states of

the US-led coalition supporting Iraqi forces:



Fully comply with the rules of international humanitarian law in the planning and execution of air

strikes and other attacks, including by cancelling attacks that risk being indiscriminate,

disproportionate or otherwise unlawful.

Consistent with the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks, end the use of explosive weapons with

wide area effects, such as artillery and mortars, in the vicinity of populated civilian areas.

Cease the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons, such as IRAMs, which are impossible to

precisely target at military objectives or to use lawfully in populated civilian areas.

Assume the presence of civilians in every structure when engaging IS fighters, given the likelihood

of IS using civilians as human shields and adjust tactics to take civilian presence into account.

Take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, including giving effective advance

warnings of impending attacks to the civilian population in the concerned areas, including, when

possible, by providing advice to civilians on specific evacuation routes that should be taken.

Take all feasible measures to ensure that civilians can evacuate from west Mosul in a safe manner.

In active conflict zones, establish safe passageways for civilians so they can safely flee.

Formulate and disseminate a co-ordinated plan for civilian evacuation, including the

delivery of food, water and shelter to civilians as quickly as possible.



Amnesty International makes the following additional recommendations to the Iraqi authorities:



At the highest level of government, publicly acknowledge the scale and gravity of the loss of civilian

lives during the military operation to retake Mosul from the control of IS.

Provide prompt and full reparation to victims and families of victims of violations, including

compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.

Establish an independent commission tasked with ensuring that any instances where

there is credible information that violations of international humanitarian law have taken

place are independently and impartially investigated and made public.

Conduct a full assessment of damage to civilian property, injury to civilians, loss of civilian

life and impact upon livelihoods as a result of the Mosul operation.

Allocate and provide adequate budgetary resources and ensure that all legislative and

regulatory measures are in place to provide reparations to victims.

Where there is admissible evidence that an individual is responsible for war crimes,

ensure they are prosecuted in a fair trial without recourse to the death penalty.

Establish a national compensation programme by which civilians can obtain reparations

for civilian harm resulting from coalition and Iraqi government strikes.



Continue to provide security, shelter and services to those displaced by the conflict until such a

time that they can safely return to their homes and support themselves. Ensure that these services

are of the highest quality.

Ensure that all areas of Mosul affected by the conflict have been cleared of unexploded

ordnance and improvised explosive devices before encouraging people to return to them.

Provide all returning civilians, especially children, with education about the dangers of

unexploded ordnance.

To this end, seek and facilitate international co-operation and assistance to ensure faster

delivery.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International



Accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and issue a declaration accepting

the International

Criminal Court’s jurisdiction since 1 July 2002.

Accede to the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to

the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II).

Amnesty International makes the following additional recommendations to the member states of the US-led

coalition:



Publicly acknowledge the scale and gravity of the loss of civilian lives during the military operation

to retake Mosul from the control of IS.

In co-ordination with the Iraqi authorities, provide prompt and full reparation to victims and families

of victims of violations, including compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and

guarantees of non-repetition.

Create a mechanism by which civilians can obtain compensation for harm, destruction

and damage resulting from coalition and Iraqi government strikes. Ensure that information

on how to access the mechanism is widely publicized throughout the operating theatre.

Support the development of an Iraqi national compensation programme.



Accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, if they are not already a state party

to it, and issue a declaration accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction

since 1 July

2002.

If they are not already a state party, accede to the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of

12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts

(Protocol II) and to the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and

Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I)

Given US policy on “pre-

and post-strike measures to address civilian casualties in U.S. operations involving

the use of force”, as set out in Executive Order 13732, signed by the US President on 1 July 2016,

161

Amnesty International also calls on the US government to take the following measures in accordance with

the order:



Conduct a review of the effectiveness of existing civilian casualty prevention and mitigation

processes, including of warning systems and methods for adjusting tactics and choices of weapons

in response to IS practices.

Disclose to the public greater information regarding existing mechanisms designed to minimize

civilian harm, including trainings and collateral damage mitigation processes.

Engage with coalition partners to share and learn best practices for reducing the likelihood of, and

responding to, civilian casualties, including through appropriate training and assistance.

THE ARMED GROUP CALLING ITSELF THE ISLAMIC STATE

While it has not been able to engage directly with the armed group calling itself the Islamic State, Amnesty

International appeals to the group to take the following actions:



Immediately cease the forced displacement of civilians into conflict zones and the use of human

shields. Allow and facilitate the evacuation of civilians wishing to flee the conflict.

Ensure civilians have access to medical care and adequate food and drinkable water, including by

facilitating the provision of impartial humanitarian relief.

Immediately halt the use of hospitals and other protected objects as lodging for fighters.

End the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons such as improvised explosive weapons including

booby traps.

In accordance with international humanitarian law, take all feasible measures to relocate military

installations, fighters and equipment from civilian areas.

161

US Federal Register, Presidential documents, Executive Order 13732, 1 July 2016, www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-07-07/pdf/2016-

16295.pdf

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

UN ASSISTANCE MISSION FOR IRAQ (UNAMI)

Acknowledging its ongoing efforts to promote the protection of human rights and judicial and legal reform to

strengthen the rule of law in Iraq, Amnesty International makes the following recommendations to the UN

Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI):



Ensure that civilian deaths and injuries as a result of the conduct of hostilities by all parties to the

Mosul operation and other conflicts in Iraq are monitored, documented and brought to public

attention in a timely fashion.

Assist the Iraqi authorities in the establishment and running of an investigative commission into

events in Mosul for accountability and reparation purposes.

Monitor the workings of the investigative commission including appointments and transparency

and report publicly on issues of concern.



THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Amnesty International makes the following recommendations to states providing military assistance or

transferring military equipment to the Iraqi government:



Before any sale or transfer of weapons, munitions or other military equipment or technology is

made, undertake a rigorous assessment of the likelihood that any transfer under consideration

would be used by the intended recipients, or by others through diversion, to commit or facilitate

serious violations of international human rights or international humanitarian law.

Adopt a preventive approach and apply concrete, enforceable, transparent and verifiable

mechanisms to mitigate and remove the substantial risk of the arms being used directly by the

intended recipients, or through diversion, to commit or facilitate serious violations of international

human rights law or international humanitarian law.

Where they have not already done so, accede to the global Arms Trade Treaty, which contains

provisions to stop arms transfers where there is an overriding risk they could be used for serious

violations of international human rights or humanitarian law and prevent diversion.



Amnesty International makes the following additional recommendations to all governments:



Acknowledge and condemn the violations that have been committed against civilians by all parties

to the conflict in west Mosul.

As a matter of urgency, increase funding for humanitarian assistance to civilians who have fled the

fighting in Mosul to meet their basic needs and allow for better preparation for further mass

displacement from Mosul and surrounding areas.

Ensure that internally displaced persons undergoing security screening are kept in humane

conditions, meeting international standards, and have facilities to enable them to communicate

with their families and have access to free legal representation.

“AT ANY COST”

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

Amnesty International

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

IS A GLOBAL MOVEMENT

FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

WHEN INJUSTICE HAPPENS

TO ONE PERSON, IT

MATTERS TO US ALL.

[email protected]

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

www.facebook.com/AmnestyGlobal

+44 (0)20 7413 5500

@Amnesty

URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 231: Vedlagt fremsendes til orientering Amnestys seneste rapport om de overgreb, som er begået mod civilbefolkningen af IS, fra Amnesty International

AT ANY COST

THE CIVILIAN CATASTROPHE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

During the battle for west Mosul, the armed group calling itself the Islamic

State (IS) systematically moved civilians into the fighting, used them as

human shields, summarily killed them and prevented them from fleeing to

safety. Consequently, as IS lost territory, the areas remaining under its

control became increasingly crowded with civilians. Iraqi government and

US-led coalition forces subjected these areas to relentless attacks using

explosive weapons with wide area effects. These attacks wreaked havoc,

killing and injuring thousands of trapped civilians.

Amnesty International’s research shows that IS committed serious violations

of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Iraqi and coalition

forces appear to have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate, disproportionate

or otherwise unlawful attacks, some of which may amount to war crimes.

Amnesty International calls on Iraqi and coalition forces to immediately end

the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated

areas. Members of the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government must

conduct effective investigations into allegations of violations of international

humanitarian law and ensure that victims and their families receive full

reparation. The only way to prevent another cycle of violence and violations

in Iraq is to ensure civilians are protected and treated with dignity.

INDEX: MDE 14/6610/2017

JULY 2017

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

amnesty.org