Amnesty International released a report yesterday detailing how tribal fighters aligned with the Iraqi government are torturing and humiliating civilians who lived in areas southeast of Mosul that were recently recaptured from Daesh.

The militias, a Sunni contingent of the predominantly Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), beat men and boys, administered electric shocks to them and forced them into poultry cages in public squares.

Reports also indicate that civilians were accused of being Daesh members or sympathisers before being tortured. Some were strapped to car bonnets and driven around to be paraded.

The violations took place in the villages of Al-Makuk, Tel Al-Sha’eir and Duwayzat Al-Sufla, and were primarily perpetrated by members of the Sunni Sab’awi tribe. The Sunni auxiliaries in the PMF number at several thousand men, a significant minority in the Iran-backed formation.

The human rights breaches often occurred for no clearly discernible reason. Al-Makuk, for instance, was recaptured by the Sunni tribal fighters without there having been any clashes with Daesh militants.

Eyewitnesses confirmed to Amnesty that Daesh simply withdrew without a fight, likely in order to focus on more defensible territory. The attacks against civilians were therefore completely unprovoked.

Two witnesses spoke to Amnesty and said: “Every fighter from the Hashd [PMF] had his own personal revenge to take…They drove around the village with men strapped onto car bonnets shouting things like ‘come see the Daeshi who informed on me and my father’.”

One victim, named “Ahmed” in order to protect his anonymity, was “kicked to the ground and ‘tasered’…three times. They punched…and beat him with the [butts] of their Kalashnikovs, with metal rods, and even a rubber hose – the thick ones used for agriculture.”

The Sab’awis responsible for the attack appeared to be settling scores with former neighbours over various disputes pre-dating anything related to Daesh, suggesting that Daesh may be used as an excuse to exact vengeance.

MEMO has also had sight of video footage showing an elderly man surrounded by PMF militias, also allegedly Sunni, who proceed to pull out his internal organs and cannibalise him. MEMO cannot independently verify the authenticity of the footage, and it is too graphic to republish.