The resumption of armed clashes in Najaf and efforts by Iraq’s interim government to restrict journalists from working in the southern Iraqi city raise serious concerns about the risk of harm to civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.
The August 13 ceasefire between the Iraqi interim government and allied U.S. forces on one side, and the militia of Shi`a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on the other, collapsed barely 48 hours later when clashes resumed on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, Iraqi police ordered all journalists to leave the city by midnight, threatening to arrest those who did not comply and seize their equipment. Police reportedly surrounded the Sea Hotel in Najaf, where journalists were staying, and many journalists reportedly left. If the media ban is enforced, coverage from Najaf would be limited to journalists embedded with U.S. military contingents.
“Forces fighting in built-up areas like Najaf must take all precautions to avoid harming civilians and not use weapons indiscriminately, whether they're sophisticated warplanes or common mortars,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “The ban on press coverage raises concern that combatants could disregard their obligations to protect civilians.”
Journalists had breached the cordon set up by U.S. and Iraqi interim government forces and reported that al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army (Jaysh al-Mahdi) is operating out of the Imam Ali shrine. Under international humanitarian law, fighting forces must take into account harm to civilians and civilian objects in pursuing their objectives.
A Ministry of Interior official later on Sunday said that the police order banning journalists was “for their own safety” and that the authorities did not intend to enforce the order with arrests. “The interior minister decided that if the journalists want to stay, it will be at their peril and they will then have to bear the consequences,” said interior ministry spokesman Adnan Abd al-Rahman.
Delegates meeting since Sunday at the Iraqi National Conference to elect a commission to organize national elections decided to send a delegation to Najaf for further mediation, but as of late Monday had not yet implemented this initiative.
U.S. military officials have claimed that more than 360 of al-Sadr’s militiamen were killed in the first days after heavy fighting broke out on August 5, but they have not addressed the question of civilian casualties. Najaf’s top health official, Falah al-Muhanna, told reporters that the fighting last week had prevented ambulances from reaching injured persons and staff from reaching hospitals. He characterized the situation there as “a real catastrophe.”
“Forces fighting in Najaf must allow ambulances and medics to reach the wounded,” said Whitson. “They also must facilitate access to hospitals.”
On August 10, U.S. forces urged residents to evacuate the city, and hundreds of civilians have since fled to nearby towns. In Kut, a city 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Najaf, a health official on Thursday said that 72 people were killed and another 148 injured in the previous 24 hours, women and children among them.
