MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Amnesty International said that fighters wearing Iraqi Federal Police uniforms had tortured and extrajudicially executed residents in villages they captured south of Mosul and urged the Iraqi authorities to investigate these reports. The watchdog added that deliberately killing captives and other defenseless individuals was prohibited by international humanitarian law and was considered to be a war crime.
"The president of the council of ministers Dr. Haider al-Abadi expressed his surprise about the Amnesty International report concerning killings that happened in Mosul and conveyed false information that it was the government forces… The truth is that they were local residents who killed Daesh militants," a post in Arabic on Abadi's Facebook page was quoted as saying by the Rudaw news agency.
According to Abadi, Iraq holds the watchdog "fully responsible" for "endangering the security" of Mosul residents, as such reports make citizens flee their homes.
On October 17, Abadi announced the launch of an operation to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS or Daesh in Arabic) terrorist group, outlawed in Russia.
