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Kurds destroy thousands of Arab homes in northern Iraq

Xinhua, January 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kurdish forces have destroyed thousands of Arab homes in northern Iraq in an apparent attempt to uproot Arab communities, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday.

Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, and other Kurdish militias in northern Iraq have "bulldozed, blown up and burned down thousands of homes in an apparent effort to uproot Arab communities in revenge for their perceived support for the so-called Islamic State (IS)," the human rights watchdog said.

"The KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) forces appear to be spearheading a concerted campaign to forcibly displace Arab communities by destroying entire villages in areas they have recaptured from IS in northern Iraq," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Advisor, who carried out the field research in northern Iraq.

"The forced displacement of civilians and the deliberate destruction of homes and property without military justification, may amount to war crimes," Rovera said.

Amnesty report is based on field investigation in 13 villages and towns and testimony gathered from more than 100 eyewitnesses, and is also corroborated by satellite imagery revealing widespread destruction of homes in villages and towns in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala.

Tens of thousands of Arab civilians who were forced to flee their homes are also barred by KRG forces from returning to recaptured areas.

The report said the displacement of Arabs "is part of a drive to reverse past abuses by the Saddam Hussein regime, which forcibly displaced Kurds and settled Arabs in these regions."

The disputed areas are ethnically mixed with Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens and other minorities. The Kurds have demanded to expand their region in northern Iraq to include the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other areas in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Salahudin and Diyala, but their move is fiercely opposed by the government in Baghdad.

In June 2014, the Peshmerga took control of the disputed areas after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their bases following the IS blitzkrieg across Iraq in which the extremist group seized large swathes of territories in predominantly Sunni provinces in north and west of Baghdad. Endit