Balkan Weapons Flowing to Iraqi Militias, Amnesty Warns

[TomSea]

Balkan Weapons Flowing to Iraqi Militias, Amnesty Warns

Arms from at least 16 countries have flowed to paramilitary militias allied to the Iraqi government who have used them to commit serious human rights violations, rights group Amnesty International says.
Mariya Cheresheva
BIRN

A new report by Amnesty International, published on Thursday, says weapons from various countries - including Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania - have ended up in Iraq with mainly Shiite militia groups, which have used the arms to commit serious crimes.

Field research and analysis of photographic and video evidence since June 2014 has found that these predominantly Shiite militias, fighting against Islamic State in Iraq alongside Iraqi government troops, have accessed arms produced in at least 16 countries, mainly the US, Russia and European states.

According to Amnesty, so-called Popular Mobilization Units, PMU, which formally joined the Iraqi armed forces in 2016, have used those arms to commit war crimes, undertake revenge attacks and other atrocities against Iraqi Sunnis.

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/balkan-weapons-used-in-war-crimes-in-iraq-amnesty-warns-01-05-2017#sthash.erYMo8dP.dpuf