Amnesty Urges Iraq To Reveal Whereabouts Of 643 Abducted Boys And Men

Iraq: The men and teenagers had disappeared during a 2016 operation by the Hashed al-Shaabi to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State.

Amnesty International on Thursday urged Iraq to reveal the whereabouts of 643 Sunni Muslim boys and men abducted five years ago by Shiite paramilitaries fighting the Islamic State (IS) group. The men and teenagers disappeared during an operation by the Hashed al-Shaabi in June 2016 to retake Fallujah in the western desert from the IS, which then held the country's Sunni provinces. The Hashed have since been integrated into Iraq's state security forces. Witnesses cited by Amnesty International said that on June 3 gunmen wearing Hashed uniforms "took an estimated 1,300 men and boys considered to be of fighting age away from their families."