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Urgent Appeal |
September 19, 2008
Urgent investigation needed into the killing of eight
civilians - Amnesty InternationalAmnesty
International is calling on the US authorities to set up a prompt,
impartial and independent investigation into the killing of eight
civilians in a village north of Baghdad.
Eight family members, three women and five men, were killed by a US air
strike in the early hours of Friday 19 September in the village of al-Dawr
near Tikrit. An Iraqi medical doctor at Tikrit General Hospital
reportedly said that the bodies of eight people were brought to the
hospital and the victims appeared to have died of injuries consistent
with those resulting from an air strike. Iraqi police and eye witnesses
in the village confirmed that the eight dead were from the same family
and that the deaths were the result of helicopter raids on the house
they were living in.
The US military confirmed that US forces carried out the attack but
stated that four of those killed were "terrorist suspects". A press
release posted on the website of the Multinational Force (MNF) today
gave the following account: “A suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist
alleged to lead improvised device facilitation and brag about his
victims was killed by Coalition forces during an operation in the Tikrit
area.” The statement added that “After arriving at the target, forces
surrounded the building and called for its occupants to surrender.
Despite nearly an hour of multiple calls and warnings that the force
would engage them, the individuals inside refused to come out. An armed
man appeared in the doorway, and Coalition forces, perceiving hostile
intent based on the man’s actions, engaged him. Later he was determined
to be the suspected terrorist. During the operation, and in accordance
with applicable rules, supporting aircraft engaged and killed three
additional terrorist suspects. Three women were also killed. An Iraqi
child was rescued from the rubbles by Coalition forces and was evacuated
to a nearby base where he is receiving medical treatment.”
This official account is inconsistent with information from eyewitnesses
and others and raises serious concerns about how this operation was
conducted. A prompt, thorough and independent investigation is urgently
needed to examine whether relevant rules of international humanitarian
law and international human rights law were respected and to ensure that
rules of engagement are not needlessly endangering the lives of
civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities.
END/
Public Document
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org
International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London
WC1X 0DW, UK
www.amnesty.org
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Background information on Iraq |
History of Conflict
Behind the current conflict in Iraq lie a history of war and a society
divided by ethnic and religious differences exacerbated by a brutal regime.
Since Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency of Iraq in 1979, the country has
been involved in two wars. In Iran, Ayatollah Khonemi, who rose into power
during the 1979 Iran revolution, strongly opposed Saddam's secularist state
and encouraged Iraqi Shia Muslims to join Iran for a United Islamic
Republic. This started an eight year Iran-Iraq war that claimed at least a
million lives.
In Iraq, the war ignited existing religious and ethnic divisions. The large
Kurdish community in the north rose against Hussein's regime and suffered
great defeats as a result. In March 1988, a chemical bombing was launched on
the Kurdish town of Halabja where about 5,000 to 12,000 civilians were
killed.
Kuwaiti Oil
In August 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait over oil disputes. The invasion,
condemned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), resulted to a
US-led coalition bombing of Iraq. While Iraq was defeated within seven
weeks, the bombings destroyed the country's infrastructure and killed
thousands of Iraqi soldiers.
In the aftermath of the Gulf War, another Kurdish uprising was met by
violence from Hussein's regime, forcing millions of Kurds to flee the
country. Shia Muslims, representing some 60% of the Iraqi population, also
rebelled against Hussein, resulting in tens of thousands of Shia killed,
tortured and imprisoned.
Because of its invasion of Kuwait, several sanctions were imposed on Iraq. A
UNSC resolution required Iraq to open up for inspection of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD), among others. A no fly zone, applied to Iraqi planes, was
enforced to protect the Kurds and Shia communities in the north and south of
Iraq.
Invasion, Insurgency & Instability
Following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, UN weapon inspectors
returned to Iraq in 2002 to search for WMD. Iraq was accused of WMD
accumulation and of failing to cooperate with UN inspection. In 2003, a
US-led coalition invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein. He was later
convicted of crimes against humanity and executed in 2006.
The war moved rapidly into a low-intensity guerrilla-style war with
insurgent groups targeting coalition forces and violence arising between
Shia and Sunni Muslims. In April 2003, temporary authority was established.
A national election followed in December 2005, wherein a coalition was
formed between representatives of the Shia, Kurd and Sunni community.
However, the government has failed to ensure stability in Iraq and some
argue that the country is in a state of civil war. Terrorist attacks,
insurgency violence and fighting between Sunni, Shia and coalition troops
continue to destabilise the elected government and claim the lives of
civilians everyday.
Source:
www.warchild.org.uk
Human
Rights Watch's Backgrounder
Background to the war in Iraq - An Iraqi perspective |
AlJazeera News
AlJazeera Magazine
CBC News - Indepth
Iraq
ElectronicIraq.net News
Iraq
Daily (published by the Iraq Ministry of Information)
IraqJournal.org (independent news)
Iraq National
Congress - News
Iraqi
News
Iraq Newspapers
and Magazines Online
JournalismNet's
Live Iraq News feeds
Kurdish Media
The Middle
East Media Research Institute
www.portaliraq.com
United States Central Command
World Socialist Web Site
Government of Iraq:
www.iraqigovernment.org
Central Bank of Iraq
Independent
Electoral Commission of Iraq
Iraqi National Assembly
Iraqi
Presidency
Iraqi Prime Minister (in Arabic only)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
AlertNet FAQ Iraq
Chronology of Events - Iraq
Chronology of key humanitarian developments in Iraq in 2003
CIA World Fact Book - Iraq
Forced Migration Online - Iraq
Human Rights
Watch - Crisis in Iraq
Iraq Body Count
Iraq
Coalition Casualty Count
Insurgent
Iraq - Links to full-text online articles and reports about the Iraqi insurgency
Library
of Congress - Country Guide for Iraq
Rightsmatter.com resources
USA Dept. of State - Iraq Country Report
World
Legal Information Institute - Iraq Page
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NGOs, Civic and HR Organizations
Active in Iraq
|
Asian Centre for Human Rights -
www.achrweb.org
Human Rights
First
Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Iraq
Human
Rights Watch - Iraq Page
The Iraq Situation - UNHCR
Iraq Action Coalition
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre -
www.internal-displacement.org
Kurdish Human Rights Project -
www.khrp.org
NGO Coordinating Committee in Iraq -
www.ncciraq.org
The Kurdish Human Rights Project
The
Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
UNDP Iraq -
www.iq.undp.org
UN Assistance Mission for Iraq -
www.uniraq.org
WHO Country Office in Iraq -
www.emro.who.int/iraq
Badr Organization
Iraq4You.com
Iraq Religions and Peoples
Iraqi National Congress
Kurdistan Democratic
Party-Iraq
The Iraqi
Republic
United Iraqi Alliance
Social, Cultural, and Political Organizations' List
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Diaspora/International Movements |
Diaspora Iraqis
Iraq Diaspora - links and
information on diaspora
Iraq Veterans Against War -
www.ivaw.org
Iraq Development program
Andy Holt
Virtual Library: Iraq
Cairo Institute for
Human Rights Studies
International Centre for Transitional Justice -
Iraq
Iraq Wikepedia
Profile
Iraqi National Library
and Archives
Iraq Resource Information Site
Iraq Maps
United States Institute
of Peace
University of
Colarado at Boulder - Research Resources and Information
Virtual Library - History of Iraq
Bibliography: Iraq History, Politics and Culture
Blogs from Iraqis:
Baghdad
Burning
A Family in
Baghdad
A Family From
Mosul
Healing Iraq
Raed in the
Middle
Tell Me a
Secret
Iraq the Model
- has good collection of links to other blogs.
Iraq Blog
Count - A
collection of links to Iraqi blogs.
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