CAMP TARIQ, Iraq (AP) June 7, 2016 — As Iraqi security forces tighten their grip on the outskirts of militant-held Fallujah allegations of human rights violations are surfacing on the operation.
On Monday, hundreds of civilians, many bearing marks of torture were released north of Fallujah after being detained by a group of Shiite militias. Five of those detained died while in the group’s custody according to Yahya al-Muhamadi, an Anbar council member working with displaced civilians.
The militia forces, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, are one of a number of different Iraqi forces participating in the operation to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group that has controlled it for more than two years.
The Popular Mobilization Forces illegally detained 605 people, al-Muhamadi the Anbar councilman said. “They tortured many of them, five people died from the torture.”
Al-Muhamadi spoke as he oversaw the registration of hundreds of newly displaced civilians along the main road to the east of Fallujah. Late Monday night a dozen mini busses were packed with tired families from Saqlawiya and other neighborhoods north of Fallujah.
In the row of mini buses on the road east of Fallujah, every family had been separated from all their male relatives over the age of 15.
But Amnesty International, a human rights organization says even civilians detained through the formal screening process are often held indefinitely without charge. Tens of thousands of civilians are estimated to still be in the custody of Iraqi security forces following the string of recent anti-IS territorial victories in Anbar province beginning in December of last year.
The operation to retake Fallujah from IS was launched in May. Iraq’s elite counterterrorism troops began their push into the city center last week and secured the southern edge of Fallujah Sunday.
On the side of the highway east of Fallujah, Hana Hussein, 45, waited to have her name registered Monday night. Earlier that day she was separated from her three oldest sons before being loaded onto a bus with her daughters.
“They said they are going to check their names in a database,” she said through a bus window, “No one told me for how long they would be held, honestly I don’t know when I will see them again.”
Behind her, another woman held a tired toddler with tearstained cheeks as security officials shone flashlights into the vehicle to check names and ages.
“Don’t worry,” called a passing Iraqi officer to the crowded bus, “Daesh will be finished in just one or two more days god willing,” he said using the arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.