World : ISIS Advance Threatens Iraq's Civilians‏ - Human Rights Watch

THE WEEK IN RIGHTS June 12, 2014 Follow us on: ISIS Advance Threatens Iraq’s Civilians

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“I don't feel safe at all,” one Mosul resident told Human Rights Watch. “I fear ISIS, they might kill me for any reason: because I worked as a government employee … if they notice that I don’t go to the mosque and pray as they want everyone to, [or] if my beard isn’t long enough.”

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) forces have taken over many areas of Iraq, including Mosul. Human Rights Watch has previously documented crimes committed by ISIS in other areas of Iraq and Syria, including car and suicide bomb attacks in civilian areas, summary executions, torture in detention, discrimination against women, and destruction of religious property. We have found that some of these acts may amount to crimes against humanity.

The possibility that ISIS will repeat the atrocities it has committed in other parts of Iraq, and impose the same intolerant and abusive rule as it has in Syria, is deeply troubling. 

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