AINA News
August 9 Report on the Situation in North Iraq
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Assyrian refugees in Ankawa.
(AINA) -- The Hammurabi Human Rights Organization has issued its latest report, dated August 9, 2014, on the situation in North Iraq.

Mosul

  • On Augist 9 ISIS began forcing all women to wear the full veil, which covers the face completely. Males members of the family of a woman who does not comply would be flogged according to Sharia law.
  • ISIS has established a black market for basic necessities, especially medicine, its financial gain.
  • According to reliable sources, some of the young men and boys recruited by ISIS who are receiving training in camps inside the city have started to flee and are in hiding for fear of prosecution by ISIS.

The Nineveh Plain

  • ISIS continues to violate human rights in areas under its control.
  • There is no accurate information about the number of families that stayed behind and did flee from the areas now dominated by ISIS, though the number is though to be low.
  • Some reassurance was felt from the likelihood that the security situation might soon improve after ISIS positions in the province of Arbel were bombed by the Americans.
  • The Yazidis trapped at teh foot of the Sinjar mountain have begun to safely leave and are likely to head to the far north, close to the Turkish border. A large amount of relief has been airdropped.
  • Communication was lost with many displaced families that are still wandering in the wilderness and remote areas, especially after the batteries of their cell phones were depleted.
  • The refugees who traveled to the far north of the Nineveh Plain suffer from the lack of basic services, as well as a shortage of medicines because of limited health care services available in these areas.
  • Most of the refugees lack funds needed to buy some special needs.
  • Homes in Baghdede and Tel Kepe have been confiscated for the "princes" of ISIS.
  • The living conditions for refugees are miserable. In many cases there are more than 100 people living in a space that normally accommodates only 20 people.
  • The condition of the refugees in Arbel is worse than that of those that are in the Dohuk and the northern areas because greater numbers of people went to Arbel, and there are huge crowds of displaced people in the area of Ankawa.
  • The aid provided by human rights and charitable organizations is severely limited. There is a humanitarian crisis.
  • There is great fear of the possibility that ISIS will begin abducting women and enslavin or selling them, as happened in Tal Afar and Sinjar.
  • Suicides have occurred in Sinjar as a result of frustration, desperation and fear. One case has been confirmed of a girl committing suicide after she saw ISIS kidnap four of her sisters from her home.

See all HHRO reports.

Translated from Arabic by AINA.



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