In what Elias Groll calls “an incredible piece of detective work”, Human Rights Watch has partly verified ISIS’s grisly claim from earlier this month that it had killed over 1,700 people during its campaign through northern and western Iraq:
In a report released Friday, Human Rights Watch pinpointed the exact location in which the images were taken. Corresponding satellite images show ground disturbance that apparently matches what the area would look like if mass graves had been dug and heavy vehicles — as seen in images posted by ISIS — had been driven there there.
Human Rights Watch determined that the photographs were taken a stone’s throw from the Tigris River and a former Hussein palace. The group’s analysis picks out individual captives and militants who appear across the photographs, seemingly bolstering the photos’ authenticity. The analysis suggests that between 160 and 190 men were killed between June 11 and June 14, though the actual death toll from ISIS executions in Tikrit could be significantly higher. The slides documenting the analysis are reproduced at the bottom of this post.
Meanwhile, Mona Mahmood and Mark Tran report, ISIS isn’t the only militia that has Iraqis scared for their lives:
[A]trocities are also being carried out by Shia militias, who have been summoned by the highest Shia authority in the land, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend Shia holy shrines. The old Mahdi army, rebranded as Peace Brigades, can be counted on to stand and fight the insurgents, unlike the military. But their zeal is feared by those they target.
Hani Sa’aeed, 24, disappeared three days ago when he went to a shopping centre with a friend in Mahmoudiya, a town south of Baghdad. “After a few hours, his friend contacted us to say that Hani was taken by the Righteous League militia who are in control of the town,” said Ibrahim Abdul Majid, Hani’s cousin. “The militia were so furious after four explosions rocked the centre of the city during the day and killed many people. They were busy picking up young men based on their IDs. Hani’s friend advised us to act quickly to save him but we did not know what to do.”
Adbul Majid eventually rang the police, who said they had found the body of a young man in a compound near the shopping centre.
The Dish 