Kurds use bulldozers to ‘de-Arabize’ lands captured from “ISIS” – Amnesty

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Iraqi Kurdish forces are involved in a campaign aimed at preventing the Arab population displaced by violence from returning to their homes in Kurd-controlled northern areas, Amnesty International said in a damning report.

The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and Peshmerga militias were one of the leading forces fighting against the onslaught of the terrorist group Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) in northern Iraq. While the Iraqi army fled the initial IS offensive, Kurds held their ground and became a principal ally for the US-led coalition fighting against the terrorists.

As fighting on the ground continued and territories in Iraq changed hands, some 3 million people were displaced. Lately the Kurds fended off IS fighters and asserted control over areas, where mixed Arab-Kurdish population lived before the violence escalated.

Now the KRG are burning and bulldozing Arab-owned homes and businesses in an apparent attempt to uproot the Arabs from those lands, Amnesty International said Tuesday in a report. The accusations are based on field investigations in 13 villages and towns, testimonies of eyewitnesses, satellite imagery and media reports. Arabs are also being barred from returning to their homes or travel freely in Kurd-controlled areas.