The cradle of civilisation has become a free for all. Twenty five years after a US-led international coalition of states invaded Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, the situation in Iraq remains as deadly as ever. 16,115 civilian deaths were recorded in 2015, with many more injured.
On 1-15 March 2016 alone, according to Iraq Body Count (IBC), 570 civilian deaths were recorded. This includes 60 deaths (39 civilian) and at least 70 injured in a suicide bombing on a checkpoint near Hilla on 6 March. This attack was claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militant group and received extensive international media coverage.
On the other hand, only Al Jazeera and Arabic-language Iraqi media reported an air strike — either Coalition or Iraqi government — that struck the village of Asriyah in Anbar Province, killing 69 civilians, largely women and children, and injuring 100 others, on 9 March. Reports also claimed that medical personnel were initially denied access by the Iraqi army, which was conducting raids on ISIL in the area. These deaths are not included in the above death toll. According to Airwars, there were over 100 civilian casualties through Coalition air strikes in this same period, some of which are included in the death toll for the first half of March.
It is undeniable that ISIL is responsible for the majority of civilian deaths, particularly through mass summary executions. IBC had to revise the death toll for 2014 upwards by 3000 following the discovery of mass graves in territories reclaimed from ISIL. Nonetheless, the almost exclusive focus on ISIL’s war crimes provides a convenient cover for those committed by others actors in the conflict: the Iraqi government and its paramilitary units, national, regional and international players.
In its World Report 2016, concerning Iraq, Human Rights Watch (HRW) states, “The UN Human Rights Council in March [2015] condemned abuses by ISIS after an OHCHR report earlier that month found that the…