“Only in exceptionally rare cases do our men make it out alive” were the words spoken by former detainee, Omar Asaad*, during a special interview with FRB-I following his release last month. He was snatched from his home town in Salahudin province early in 2015, and held indefinitely by government-backed militia forces.
 
Old, dilapidated buildings, homes and schools, where the 19 year old was kept, are known as ‘Iraq’s forgotten prisons’ by the few that have escaped.
 
This growing informal prison network that is managed jointly by militia outfits that form the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and local police — are the latest weapons used against male youth in towns liberated from Islamic State terrorists.

On Mar. 19 2003, invading Anglo-American troops trickled across Iraq’s borders as whistling missiles rained down from the sky above. War had begun. Baghdad fell to occupying forces in April and, power, 14 months on, was entrusted to an assembly of men unrecognisable to the nation they would preside over.

Testimonies recently obtained by FRB-I uncover details that puncture the dominant US-narrative surrounding the ‘transfer of sovereignty’ to a new Iraqi-entity. In portraying themselves as liberators, George. W. Bush’s administration rode mightily upon the claim of restoring what rightfully belongs to Iraq, omitting the fact that they had suspended its's sovereignty upon invading the country.

Was Iraq not a sovereign actor pre-2003? Acknowledging this fact would require America to recognise the right of Iraqis to defend their lands and dignity.

The piece presented unpacks the question of what guided the decision of handing power back. Testimonies featured reveal a contradiction in the form of ‘sovereignty’ America awarded Iraq in June 2004, and the conventional understanding of sovereignty — since the force that occupied Iraq 14 years ago, has maintained its firmly rooted militarised presence.

Torture Allegations Against Iraqi Special Forces 

​Ali Arkady, an Iraqi photographer and documentary filmmaker who is well informed of what has been happening in his home country since 2006, is not only an excellent photographer, but also his many contacts in the country (as well as numerous documentations) give him unusually deep insights into the various conflicts of Iraq.

He has worked with Der SPIEGEL since 2011, and the scenes of torture, rape and targeted killings committed by the Iraqi security forces that Arkady meticulously photographed and filmed last year over a period of months, have confirmed similar observations from human rights organizations, statements of witnesses, as well as what SPIEGEL has already reported about the Iraqi security forces arbitrary arresting of civilians, as well as torturing, and killing them.
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In May, last year, SPIEGEL reporter, Arkady, went for a search in the city of Toozkhurmatu, south of Kirkuk, in the footsteps of a forced eviction and murder campaign of the Shiite militias. Witnesses consistently told him of kidnapped family members. Already at that time, it was said that up to a thousand Sunnis, from Toozkhurmatu alone, had disappeared. The ones who fled from other provinces of Iraq confirmed the abduction, but there had been a lack of evidence beyond the witnesses and the places abandoned.

Helsinki — An assembly of protesting voices gathered in Helsinki to deliver an all important message to global leaders in attendance of a conference celebrating Finland’s independence.

Chants echoed loudly as passersby wore perplexed expressions — but the demands of activists was crystal clear: “stop deportations” to unsafe countries.

Moves by the Finnish government to forcibly expatriate Iraqis, Afghans and other refugees, has elicited similar responses in the past 18 months.

The government under, Juha Sipilä, has adopted a tougher stance towards refugees, once existing laws were twisted in 2015 to argue that Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are stable states.

Facing Danger, and Lacking Food, Water, Health Care

(Beirut) – The Iraqi army and other local security forces have forced over 300 displaced families to return to west Mosul neighborhoods still under risk of attack by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Human Rights Watch said today. The families, who had fled to the Hammam al-Alil and Hajj Ali camps for displaced people, are severely short of water, food, electricity, and medical assistance.

Displaced residents, camp staff in Hammam al-Alil, and three federal police officers said that families were returned to certain west Mosul neighborhoods to make room for newly displaced people from more recently retaken neighborhoods of west Mosul. But aid workers involved in camp management and United Nations assessments of camp capacity indicated that the camps still have space for new arrivals.

“People from western Mosul fled some of the worst fighting there and finally found safety, only to be forced back to areas still under ISIS fire,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These families should not be forcibly returned to unsafe areas and areas that lack adequate water, food, electricity, or health facilities.”
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The UN Guiding Principles on internal displacement state that all internally displaced people should be able to choose where they live and have the right to be protected against forcible return to any place where their life, safety, liberty, or health would be at risk.

How private companies recruit former child soldiers for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

​From opportunistic guns for hire on the fringe of domestic conflicts to a global force operating within a multibillion-dollar industry - the private military sector seems to be flourishing.

As armies and war increasingly become 'outsourced', private military companies have taken on a wider increasing range of responsibilities, from security and intelligence analysis to training and combat roles.

"The private military industry is a part of how the countries fight wars today ... The US government doesn't track the number of contractors used in places like Iraq or Afghanistan. We know it's a lot, we don't know exactly how many," says Sean McFate, a professor at Georgetown University who used to work for a private military company. 

Thousands more people are fleeing Mosul every day since Iraqi troops began their push into the last Islamic State-held areas of the city last week, with food and water running out and the fighting killing increasing numbers of civilians.

More than 22,000 people have fled Mosul since the U.S.-backed forces opened a new front in the northwest of the city on May 4 to try to finally dislodge the militants, the United Nations said on Wednesday, citing Iraqi government figures.

In the past two days alone, more than 11,000 people have passed through a screening site at the Hammam al-Alil camp south of Mosul.

Islamic State fighters are shooting people who try to escape, although some men have been allowed to go in exchange for taking militants' families with them, said 40-year-old Umm Abdul Rahman, who fled the Musherfa district on Tuesday night.

Mosul’s political and religious fabric cannot be repaired.

“Iraq after ISIS” is the catchphrase of the day in political and media circles. It assumes a new phase in Iraqi history, for which no terms have been agreed, offering no vision or guarantees that terrorism will not reappear.

Before Iraq can rebuild newly liberated provinces levelled during the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), it must return inhabitants to their neighbourhoods and establish and safely guard the rule of law.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi’s government has amplified promises of grand reconstruction plans but, in a pattern consistent with the past, it has under-deliv­ered.
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Najiba Najib, a member of Iraq’s Parliamentary Investment Commit­tee, has stated that foreign inves­tors would assist the government by granting loans to fund invest­ment plans and housing projects. The foreign firms Najib mentioned have not been named publicly. This lack of detail suggests that either no plan exists or its goals are unat­tainable.

HAMAM AL-ALIL, Iraq — The road to Mosul is littered with the detritus from almost three years of war: burned M1117 armored vehicles, sandbagged berms and trenches from defensive positions once manned against Islamic State fighters, houses pancaked by airstrikes. The long supply line of the Iraqi army stretches through villages, with bulldozers, camouflaged trucks and temporary base camps.

Particularly noticeable are the frequent checkpoints manned by young armed men. But the fighters often aren’t from the Iraqi army or the Federal Police, but are members of various Iran-supported Shiite militias in the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units.

While taking part in the U.S.-backed assault on the Islamic State group’s last major stronghold in Iraq, many of these units fly flags celebrating Shiite religious figures such as the Imam Hussein, and some have posters of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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Life in those areas under control of the Shiite militias provides a window into Iran’s influence and the sectarian tensions that still dog Iraq as the campaign for Mosul enters its seventh grinding month.