Sunni Arab genocide in Iraq

There had been allegations that Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias, with the support of the Iraqi central government, had committed genocide against Sunni Muslim Arabs in Iraq. The allegations began after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when Iran-backed Shia factions dominated the Iraqi government. Such reports intensified during the Iraqi civil war from 2006 to 2008 and the War in Iraq from 2014 to 2017 against the Islamic State. Peshmerga and Asayish have also "prosecuted, detained and tortured" Iraqi Sunni Arabs.^[4]

Sunni Arab genocide in Iraq
Part of the Iraqi conflict
Popular Mobilization Forces enter Fallujah in 2016
Location	Iraq
Date	2003–present
Target	Iraqi Sunni Arabs
Attack type	Revenge killing, mass killing, abduction, torture, ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killing
Deaths	At least 30,000[1]
Victims	250,000–1,000,000 forcibly disappeared during 2016–2020 (Red Cross),[1][2] 9,000 sentenced to death,[3] thousands detained and tortured (European Union Agency for Asylum)[4]
Perpetrators	Iraq Federal government of Iraq Iraqi Security Forces[5] Kurdistan Regional Government[4] Peshmerga Asayish Popular Mobilisation Forces Various Shia militias Iran[6] Iranian Armed Forces IRGC
Motive	Counterterrorism,[7][8][9] Anti-Sunnism, De-Ba'athification[10]

History

Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the implementation of De-Ba’athification laws, thousands of Sunni Arab professionals all around Iraq were removed from their positions. After the 2003 invasion, Sunni Arabs grew increasingly alienated from the rest of Iraq. Before the invasion, Iraq had been politically dominated by Sunni Arabs for over 80 years, and the end of Sunni Arab dominance caused many armed revolts instantly after the 2003 invasion.^[11][12]

Subsequently, following the end of the CPA government, Iran-backed Shia factions rapidly consolidated power over the Iraqi government. After the rise of Shia Islamist parties, the Sunni community was widely suspected of being former regime loyalists or insurgents.^[13][14] Iran-backed Shia militias began operating death squads that targeted Sunni Arabs with abduction, torture, and execution under the pretext of anti-terror operations.^[15][16] In cities with mixed populations, such as Baghdad, entire Sunni neighborhoods were ethnically cleansed.^[17]

On 12 August 2007, Iraq's most senior Sunni politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called on Arab states to stop what he called an "unprecedented genocide campaign" by Iranian-backed Shia militias.^{[18][better source needed]}

Sunni clerics, politicians, tribe leaders, and ordinary civilians were subject to targeted killings, unlawful detentions, and torture. While Abu Ghraib prison was initially infamous for the US Army prisoner abuses, it was later handed to the Iraqi government and became notorious for similar abuses. Sunni detainees were regularly targeted for various abuses, while Shia detainees were left alone.^[19]

After the Islamic State quickly captured large Sunni-majority areas such as Mosul, Ramadi, and Fallujah, the Iraqi government further suspected Sunni Arabs of supporting extremist groups. Following the defeat of the Islamic State, the Iraqi Army and allied Shia militias placed entire Sunni populations under collective punishment. Families of suspected ISIS members were denied documentation, displaced en masse, and barred from returning to their homes, even when they had no known connection to ISIS activities.^[20] Militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces carried out extrajudicial executions, looting, and the destruction of Sunni property, often without accountability from the Iraqi government.^[21] It has been estimated that around 22,000 Iraqi Sunnis have been killed between 2014 and 2016 amid sectarian violence, while thousands of families have fled their homes.^[22] By 2017, the PMF had destroyed 345 Sunni homes to the west of Mosul after retaking them from ISIS, which according to Human Rights Watch had "no apparent military necessity" and may have qualified to be considered war crimes.^[23] Furthermore, Human Rights Watch called on the United States and other Western states that armed Iraq against ISIS to use their leverage to force the Iraqi government to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations and abuses against Sunni Arabs.^[23] According to Amnesty International, Shia militias have operated with "total impunity" regarding their war crimes against Sunnis, in retaliation for attacks by the Islamic State.^[24] This is primarily due to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that Sunni Arabs hold a favorable disposition towards ISIS.^[25] In Jurf al-Sakhar, the Sunni population was ethnically cleansed to create a security buffer zone between Anbar and the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, where 3,000 Sunni homes were razed and 7,000 Sunni families were displaced and not allowed to return.^[26] In Nineveh governorate, Yazidi militias entered several Sunni Arab settlements and began massacring civilians as revenge for the Yazidi genocide.^[27] Shia Turkmen militias in Tuz Khurmatu harassed, kidnapped, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and killed Sunni Arab civilians, while looting and destroying their houses, as well as blocking the return of Sunni Arab residents in Tuz Khurmatu and Kirkuk. Shia Turkmen militias engaged in significant destruction of homes and property of Sunni Arabs. Several human rights groups and local informants claimed that the destruction of Sunni Arab homes by Shia Turkmen militias showed patterns of an effort to permanently change the demographics.^[28] The Shabak Militia also targeted Sunni Arab civilians in revenge for Islamic State crimes against Shabaks.^[29]

During the war against the Islamic State, additional waves of displacement occurred, with up to 1.5 million Sunni Arabs displaced by 2018, many of whom remained in camps or were refused reentry into their former communities.^[30][31] After 2003, tens of thousands of Sunnis were killed by Shia militias in sectarian clashes. Over 20,000 Sunnis had died from 2006 to 2007 alone, with the numbers increasing by the thousands over the years. The violence decreased in 2017 and largely stopped by 2018.^[32]

Shia Arab leaders often dismissed Sunni grievances as exaggerated or illegitimate, framing their demands as attempts to relive Ba'athist nostalgia. Kurdish leaders offered limited battlefield support but were reluctant to offer extensive help to Sunni Arabs due to the persecution of Kurds by Saddam Hussein.^[33][34] International organizations, including the UN, condemned sectarian violence and collective punishment, but interventions were limited in scope and effect.^[35]

A 2020 report published by the European Union Agency for Asylum stated that Iraqi Sunni Arabs experienced torture and "other forms of ill treatment" because of family name, tribal affiliation or area of origin, as a form of "collective punishment and stigmatisation by government forces, other armed groups and the community".^[4]

The yearly US Department of State Report on International Religious Freedom in 2022 stated that Sunni Arabs represented about 90% of all prisoners in allegedly illegal detention in Iraq, including 9,000 that received death sentences.^[3] In 2023, Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi stated that Iran-backed militias supporting the Iraqi government had kidnapped and executed thousands of Sunni Arab men and boys between 2013 and 2017. Opposition analyst Ahmed al-Mahmud stated that "Halbousi has effectively confirmed that the Iraqi government has engaged in a sectarian genocide against its own people, the Sunni Arabs.”^[36]