HRW accuses KRG forces of torturing minors

A major human rights group on Tuesday accused security forces in northern Iraq's Kurdish region of abusing and torturing children.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said forces of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) forced children to "confess their involvement" with the Daesh terrorist organization.

The KRG's security forces of Asayish, according to the report, resorted to "beatings, stress positions, and electric shock on boys in their custody."

"Nearly two years after the Kurdistan Regional Government promised to investigate the torture of child detainees, it is still occurring with alarming frequency," Jo Becker, the children's rights advocacy director, said.

"The Kurdistan authorities should immediately end all torture of child detainees and investigate those responsible," he added.

HRW said among the 23 children who were interviewed by the rights group, 16 children said one or more Asayish officers "had tortured them during interrogation at Asayish facilities, beating them all over their bodies with plastic pipes, electric cables, or rods."

"Three boys said that the officers used electric shocks. Others described being tied into a painful stress position called the "scorpion" for up to two hours," it added.

Other boys told HRW that "the torture continued over consecutive days, and only ended when they confessed."

In the summer of 2014, Daesh overran much of northern and western Iraq.

After a three-year war, the Iraqi government declared late in 2017 that Daesh's military presence in Iraq had been all but ended through operations backed by a U.S.-led international alliance.