Iraq’s Kurdish forces have unlawfully destroyed large numbers of Arab homes in areas once ruled by the Daesh extremist militia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Sunday.
The demolitions in northern Iraq took place between September 2014 and May 2016 after the Peshmerga forces of Iraq’s autonomous Regional Government of Kurdistan (KRG) regained the areas from Daesh, HRW added in a report.
“In village after village in Kirkuk and Nineveh, KRG security forces destroyed Arab homes – but not those belonging to Kurds – for no legitimate military purpose,” HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said.
KRG leaders have maintained that these are historically Kurdish areas that they want to incorporate into Kurdistan, HRW said.
The New York-based human rights watchdog said the reported abuses were based on field visits by its researchers, more than 120 interviews with local witnesses and officials as well as extensive analysis of satellite imagery.
The HRW report comes as the Kurdish forces are participating with Iraq’s government troops in an ongoing US-backed campaign to drive Daesh from Mosul, which is the radical group’s last key stronghold in the country.
“The pattern of unlawful KRG destruction of Arab homes and villages is deeply disturbing in its own right,” Stork said.
“More than that, it is a recipe for continued conflict even if KRG and allied forces dislodge ISIS [Islamic State] from Mosul and other territory it controls in Iraq.”
Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, has been under Daesh control since mid-2014.
