Iraqi soldiers and Shia militiamen dance outside Tikrit (file)
Iraqi soldiers and Shia militiamen dance outside Tikrit (file)Reuters

Amnesty International said Thursday it was investigating reports of serious human rights violations committed by Iraqi government and allied forces in the operation to retake the city of Tikrit.

"We are very concerned by reports of widespread human rights abuses committed in the course of the military operation in the area around Tikrit," the rights watchdog's Donatella Rovera told AFP.

Security forces backed by paramilitary groups and supported by US-led air strikes retook Tikrit from the Islamic State (ISIS) group over the past few days.

Outlying areas in Salaheddin province, which had also been under ISIS control since last year, were retaken gradually over the course of the past month.

The operation - Baghdad's largest yet against the jihadists - was seen as a test of the Shi'ite-dominated forces' ability to retake a Sunni area while reining in reprisals against the local population.

"We are investigating reports that scores of residents have been seized early last month and not heard of since, and that residents' homes and businesses have been blown up or burned down after having been looted by militias," said Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty.

"There have also been reports of summary executions of men who may or may not have been involved in combat but who were killed after having been captured" when not in combat, she said.

Rovera said the latest such report was an incident Wednesday inside Tikrit.

The government and its coalition partners, the United Nations and rights groups have repeatedly stressed that any military victory against ISIS that comes with sectarian-driven abuses would only sow the seeds of future violence.

Pro-government militiamen could be seen looting shops in central Tikrit Wednesday as Iraqi forces sought to consolidate control over the city.

Reports of homes being torched by anti-ISIS fighters have been frequent in the course of the month-long offensive. Such allegations are generally denied by commanders on the ground who say the fires were set off by fleeing jihadists or used by their men as a way of detonating ISIS booby traps.

Calls for restraint

It is still early to assess the Iraqi forces' discipline in reconquered areas only two days after ISIS lost Tikrit and with possibly a handful of trapped jihadists and the bombs they planted across the city still posing a threat.

Yet analysts argued the government camp appears to have at least partially succeeded in containing a widespread desire for revenge among Shi'ite fighters.

"The government and the religious authorities in Najaf took this issue very seriously," said Zaid al-Ali, author of "The Struggle For Iraq's Future."

"They issued a number of warnings and also dispatched hundreds of preachers to the front to remind fighters not to engage in looting, collective punishment or other forms of criminal activity," he said.

Fanar Haddad, author of "Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity," agreed the operation could have gone much worse.

"While excesses have been committed and there may have even been instances of war crimes, we have yet to see evidence of what was widely feared: a systematic and pre-planned eradication of Tikrit," said Haddad, a research fellow at the Middle East Institute.

The US-led coalition, whose aircraft played a key role in breaking the back of ISIS resistance in Tikrit, said calls for restraint and respect of the civilian population paid off.

"I think the Iraqi government and the security forces and all those under the command of the security forces know the importance and profile of the issue," a senior coalition military official told AFP.

"It's been reinforced again and again down the chain of command, and our information is that that has been a success," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"The Iraqis themselves have been very clear that they will - and they know the international community will - investigate breaches in this area and bring to account those who are responsible," he said.