Iraqi Army soldiers execute handcuffed ISIS fighter caught fleeing Mosul

Warning: Graphic Content

Evidence suggesting war crimes and breakdown of discipline by Iraqi troops continues to mount as the military force approaches the 100-day mark of their operations to retake Mosul from ISIS forces.

Iraqi Army soldiers, who appear to be from the Army’s 7th division based on their uniforms’ patches, allegedly executed an ISIS loyalist after he was arrested fleeing southern Mosul.  The video of the soldiers’ alleged war crime was distributed on social media sometime last week.

In 2014, US military advisers began providing advice and planning  to the division and Iraqi security forces at al-Assad Air Base in Anbar province.  In January 2015, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said about 320 US service members were stationed at the base, which has been known to receive mortar fire from Islamic State militants.

At the beginning of this month, the 7th division led police, and fighters from local tribes in an operation to liberate the western areas of Anbar province from ISIS.

It is not known if US advisers were embedded with the Iraqi troops, or advising the operation, when the alleged war crime occurred but USAF Col. John Dorian, the official spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, has said that US military advisers have been “behind the front lines” within the city limits of Mosul.

On Thursday, the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) confirmed to Popular Military that Prime Minister Haider al-abadi ordered an investigation into different video purporting to show Iraqi forces torturing and killing suspected ISIS fighters.

“Human rights abuses, if left unchecked, could undermine confidence in the ISF and threaten the peace and stability that Iraqi and Coalition forces are working so hard to achieve,” Dorrian told Popular Military.

As the Coalition forces tighten their grip on the city of Mosul, hundreds of thousands of refugees and Islamic State fighters have fled.  Earlier this week, Prime Minister al-Abadi declared that eastern Mosul had been fully liberated from the Islamic State, which has forced many to flee across the Tigris river that separates the city.

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