Allegations of Sunni genocide in Iraq

Allegations of Sunni genocide in Iraq
Part of the Iraqi conflict
Popular Mobilization Forces enter Fallujah in 2016
Location	Baghdad, Al-Anbar Governorate and Saladin Governorate, Iraq
Date	2003–present
Target	Iraqi Sunni Arabs
Attack type	Mass killings, abductions, torture, ethnic cleansing and house demolition
Deaths	22,000 (2014–2016)
Victims	3,000 Sunni homes razed and 7,000 Sunni families displaced in Baghdad
Perpetrators	Iraq Iran Popular Mobilization Forces Kata'ib Hezbollah Muqawimun Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Badr Organization
Motive	Anti-Sunnism, sectarianism, and Shia fundamentalism

There are allegations that Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias, with the support of the Iraqi government, have committed genocide against Sunni Muslim Arabs in Iraq. Such reports intensified during the War in Iraq between 2014 and 2017. Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi admitted that the Iraqi government engaged in sectarian genocide against Sunni Arabs. Human Rights Watch has accused Iraqi state-sponsored Shia militias such as the Popular Mobilization Forces of having committed potential war crimes of having perpetrated abductions, lootings, torture and mass killings of Iraqi Sunni Arabs, as well as demolishing of Sunni property, homes, stores and mosques. Iraqi Sunni politicians and tribal leaders have reported finding mass graves. According to Amnesty International, Shia militias have operated with "total impunity" regarding their war crimes against Sunnis, in retaliation for attacks by the Islamic State. This is primarily due to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that Sunni Arabs hold a favorable disposition towards ISIS. Sunni Arabs represent about 90% of all prisoners in allegedly illegal detention, including 9,000 that received death sentences. It has been estimated that around 22,000 Iraqi Sunnis have been killed between 2014 and 2016 amid sectarian violence, while thousands of families have fled their homes.

Demolition of property

By 2017, the Popular Mobilization Forces have destroyed 345 Sunni homes to the west of Mosul after retaking them from ISIS, which was of "no apparent military necessity" and may amount to war crimes according to Human Rights Watch.

Ethnic cleansing

Following the Iraqi civil war, Iraqi Sunnis have complained of discrimination by Iraq's Shia majority government, which bolstered by the news that Sunni detainees were allegedly discovered to have been tortured in a compound used by government forces on 15 November 2005.

On 12 August 2007, Iraq's most senior Sunni politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called on Arab states to stop what he called an "unprecedented genocide campaign" by Iranian-backed Shia militias.

In Jurf al-Sakhar in southwest Baghdad, the Sunni population has been ethnically cleansed to create a security buffer zone between Anbar and the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, where 3,000 Sunni homes have been razed and 7,000 Sunni families were displaced and not allowed to return.

In 2016, Iraqi officials have raised alarms of a "genocide" against Sunnis in Diyala Governorate after an attack on a cafe by ISIS, prompting angry Shia mobs to blow up several Sunni mosques – two of which were fully destroyed, kill a Sunni imam, and burn Sunni-owned homes and stores.

Reactions

Human Rights Watch called on the United States and other Western states that arm Iraq to use their leverage to force the government to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations and abuses.