Human Rights Watch says Iraqi insurgent attacks on civilians are constitute war crimes.
The laws of war restrict the means and manner of attacks and oblige all forces in a conflict to protect civilians and other non-combatants:
“There are no justifications for targeting civilians, in Iraq or anywhere else,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. “Armed groups as well as governments must respect the laws of war.”
Human Rights Watch's new report analyzes the insurgency in Iraq and highlights the groups that are most responsible for the abuse, namely al-Qaeda in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic Army in Iraq, which have all targeted civilians for abductions and executions:
The first two groups have repeatedly boasted about massive car bombs and suicide bombs in mosques, markets, bus stations and other civilian areas. Such acts are war crimes and in some cases may constitute crimes against humanity, which are defined as serious crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
The report documents the assassinations of government officials, politicians, judges, journalists, humanitarian aid workers, doctors, professors and those deemed to be collaborating with the foreign forces in Iraq, including translators, cleaners and others who perform civilian jobs for the U.S.-led Multi-National Force. Insurgents have directed suicide and car bomb attacks at Shi`a mosques, Christian churches and Kurdish political parties with the purpose of killing civilians.[. . .]
Insurgent groups also have tortured and summarily executed civilians and captured combatants in their custody, sometimes by beheading. And they have carried out attacks against legitimate military targets, such as army convoys, in such a manner that the foreseeable loss of civilian life was greatly disproportionate to the military gain.
I'm not generally a fan of Human Rights Watch, but this report is helpful. There is little hope of stopping terrorism if all civilized people don't condemn it.
UPDATE: At Rantingprofs, Cori Dauber notes that the New York Times buried
a reference to the Human Rights Watch report in the "23rd (that is, final)" paragraph of the Times" story on Iraq's constitutional rule change.
It is truly unfortunate that the report branding the enemy as war criminals has not gotten more play.
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