Mosul Op: Iraq troops execute 3 Sunni teens in sectarian violence

More footage of Iraqi soldiers committing war crimes by killing unarmed teenagers in Mosul has emerged on social media, as the fourth month in the battle to recapture Iraq’s second largest city from Daesh extremists begins in bloody fashion.

MEMO has seen graphic footage that shows armed Iraqi men who are part of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) executing three teenage boys after subjecting them to brutal violence. According to Al Jazeera, the men are said to be from the Iraqi Federal Police Force, who are fighting side-by-side with other ISF units and Shia militias in the fight to force Daesh out of Mosul.

The shocking video, taken from one of the militarised police officer’s mobile phones, shows the armed men beating and torturing the three youngsters, who are all denying any membership to the Daesh extremist group that the Iraqi military is in Mosul claiming to be fighting in a battle of liberation.

#قناة_الرافدين | القوات الحكومية تعدم مدنيين من أهل الموصل بعد تعذيبهم بدعوى انتمائهم لتنظيم الدولة خارج إطار القانون pic.twitter.com/8obDHPTFEJ

— قناة الرافدين (@alrafidain_tv) January 20, 2017

The blue uniforms of the Federal Police are clearly visible on the men conducting the execution.

Iraq experts have repeatedly warned that the ISF has long been infiltrated by Shia militias loyal to ideological ally Iran rather than their home country. These militias, openly and extensively connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have committed sectarian atrocities since 2003.

The video begins with an Iraqi soldier walking past carrying a long and bloodied stick that he had been using to beat unarmed prisoners. The soldiers can be seen throwing the teenagers around, kicking them repeatedly in the head, and a trail of blood can be seen on the asphalt as one of the battered boys leans almost lifeless against a nearby car.

The armed men continue to insult the teenagers, cursing their religious beliefs and using sectarian slurs against them because they are Sunnis. Throughout the video, the boys can be heard pleading for their lives, denying any links to Daesh and screaming horrifically as they are savagely beaten.

The men then open fire with fully automatic weapons and slay the boys in a hail of gunfire. The soldier carrying the camera then says to the killers: “May Allah bless your hands.”

Iraqi forces target children

This latest footage comes after a slew of leaks that showed ISF personnel and allied Shia militias from the PMF – who fall under the aegis of the ISF – torturing and killing civilians.

Three days after operations against Daesh in Mosul began last month, MEMO broke the news of footage of sectarian Iraqi soldiers beating children with hammers, striking them on their knees and their heads, and later having slabs of concrete dropped on their fragile bodies.

The same report included footage of an Iraqi child called Ihab Muhammad being beaten by a soldier who was questioning him, just because the soldier did not like the answers he was given about where the child’s family were and which tribe he belonged to.

Late last October, MEMO also reported and published footage of Iraqi children being beaten and insulted by Baghdad’s forces. Two boys around the age of 10-years-old were placed into the back of a pickup truck, slapped around their heads while soldiers planted boots onto their spines, and had gun barrels shoved into their bodies as gleeful soldiers posed for photographs.