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A U.S.-trained Iraqi military unit committed war crimesinMosul during the battle to liberate the city from the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The groupsaid two international observers alleged that the unit, the 16th Division of the Iraqi army, summarily killed four people in mid-July. The observersalso alleged they had evidence of other executions, including one case involving a boy. The group did not provide an age.

In the case of the four people, the observers said they saw soldiers walk the men, who were naked, into an alleyway, after which they heard gunshots. Soldiers said the four were members of ISIS, butthe observers said they had heard no clashes in the area. One of the observers returned the next day and capturedimages of three of the bodies, which wereshared with Human Rights Watch.

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The U.S. militarys 82nd Airborne Division has previously provided training to the unit, and led it in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, which Iraqi troops recapturedin December 2015. It remains unclear if the divisionstill trains the unit, but, with the forceoperating inside Mosul,it is likely that there was some form ofcoordinationduring the battle for the city.

The U.S. government should make sure it is no longer providing assistance to the Iraqi unit responsible for this spate of executions but also suspend any plans for future assistance until these atrocities have been properly investigated, saidSarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Given the widespread abuses by Iraqi forces and the governments abysmal record on accountability, the U.S. should take a hard look at its involvement with Iraqi forces.

A member of the Iraqi federal police walks through the rubble of a destroyed building during the advance through the Old City of Mosul on June 28. Human Rights Watch said an Iraqi unit trained by American forces summarily executed prisoners in western Mosul. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty

The battle for Mosul lasted nine months and forced hundreds of civilians to flee ISISs brutal rule, an Iraqi ground offensiveand U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

Aside from ISISs barbaric treatment of civilians and opponents in the city, rights groups have criticized the U.S.-led coalition for its bombing campaign, which left hundreds of civilians dead in the Iraqi city.

They have also taken aim at the Iraqi forces, accusing them of severe human rights abuses, particularly against Sunni civilians and suspected members of ISIS attempting to flee the city.

The Iraqi security forces are dominated by Shiite members and are aided by Shiite militias such as the feared Hashd al-Shaabi, whose members havebeen accused of torturing and executing Sunnis.

ISISs captureof Mosul, a Sunni-majority city, came after disaffected Sunni Iraqi security forces put down their weapons and deserted their positions amid the jihadi groupsadvance.

The threat of further sectarian tensions in and around the city and the liberatedSunni lands of northern Iraq will raise fears among Baghdads partners that security could again be severely threatened,despite the defeat of ISIS in Mosul.

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US Trained Unit in Iraq That 'Committed War Crimes' in Mosul Battle - Newsweek

France will vet asylum-seekers inLibyabefore they embark on the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe, President EmmanuelMacronsaid on Thursday, but his own officials dismissed the plan as impractical.

MrMacronsaid France would open centres inLibyabefore the end of the summer to process asylum applications. "The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when theyre not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," MrMacronsaid during a visit to a refugee shelter in Orlans, central France.

He said the centres would help to stem the massive influx of migrants into Italy and elsewhere in Europe. However, the presidents own officials immediately cast doubt on whether the plan could be implemented at present, pointing out that security was not yet good enough inLibya.

MrMacrons announcement came two days after he brokered talks in Paris between the leaders ofLibyas two main factions, who agreed to a conditional ceasefire and elections.

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France plans migrant processing centres in Libya - Telegraph.co.uk

It is very relevant news in the fight against human trafficking in Libya, if we respond positively, Mr. Gentiloni said after the meeting. I believe this is necessary.

But the potential hurdles confronting such a strategy are manifold. Not least it requires the approval of parliament, which is scheduled to begin debating the potential deployment next Tuesday.

Once parliament gives consent, which is expected, the defense ministry says that it can quickly begin a mission and expects three to six ships, but also helicopters, fighter jets and drones, to be in action by mid-August.

In the meantime, Italian government officials said they were trying to untangle thorny issues related to the rules of engagement.

Those included what Italian warships would do if they encountered hostile human traffickers in foreign waters; whether they can stop arms and oil smugglers as well as human traffickers; and whether the migrants they might have to rescue should be returned to Libya, where they could face a horrific security situation.

The political impact could also be significant. Domestically, the waves of migrants have become a conservative talking point against the center-left government, which has found itself increasingly on the defensive as elections approach.

The crisis has stoked tensions between Italy and its European Union partners, who have mostly been unwilling to share the burden of migrants flowing into Italy, even as many of the migrants seek destinations farther north among Europes richer countries.

Since 2015, the government in Tripoli has denied the European Unions antismuggling mission, called Sophia, from entering its waters. Italian efforts to train the Libyan Coast Guard have proved mostly ineffective.

Instead, Libya has emerged as a key point of departure for hundreds of thousands of migrants, as human traffickers capitalize on the power vacuum created by the overthrow and killing of Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011.

Aid groups operating ships have rescued a significant percentage of the migrants in grave risk of drowning at sea. Some anti-immigrant parties have accused the aid groups of encouraging, or even colluding with, human traffickers.

That suspicion, and a far-right-wing ideology to protect European countries from Muslim and a nonwhite invasion, prompted a group of far-right activists operating under the name Defend Europe to charter a ship to monitor and disrupt aid group activity to prevent asylum seekers from reaching Europe.

The identitarians, as they call themselves, planned to board the ship this month in Sicily and sail toward Libyan waters. But the ship got stuck for days in Egypt.

On Wednesday, it arrived in Northern Cyprus, where its captain and first mate were reportedly arrested themselves for people-smuggling and forging documents after about 20 South Asians were found on board.

About five of the South Asian crew asked for asylum. A spokesman for Defend Europe blamed the asylum requests on bribes from aid groups.

Read more here:
Italy Plans Naval Mission Off Libya to Stop Migrant Boats - New York Times

Human Rights Watch

Rights group: Armed groups in western Libya attack activists Miami Herald Human Rights Watch says that activists in western Libya have been physically attacked and threatened by armed groups, some affiliated with U.N.-backed government based in the country's capital, Tripoli. The statement by the New York-based watchdog on ... Libya: Activists Being Silenced | Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch Intimidation by militias creates censorship in western Libya says rights groupLibya Herald all 4 news articles »

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Rights group: Armed groups in western Libya attack activists - Miami Herald

Black Lives Matter is under fire again. Because Monday. The National Rifle Association (NRA), a non-profit organization that fights for gun rights in the United States, accused the civil rights organization of promoting racial hatred in a segment on the NRA's live streaming online channel, as reported byHuffington Post.

According to the NRATV segment, hostGrant Stinchfield, seems to believe that the United States is in danger of increased racialized violence against white people.

Stinchfieldsaid in the segment,

Race relations are strained here in America after 8 years of Barack Obama, but nowhere is near as bad as it is in South Africa where white families are being tortured and killed almost every day in racist violence.

It is a warning for the United States that you will never hear from the mainstream media in this country.

A cameraman from the Christian Broadcasting Network, Chuck Holton, joined the conversation and directly linkedthe speculated increase in violence to ideasspread by the Black Lives Matter organization.

He shared,

[Violence in South Africa is] kind of a warning for what could happen in the United States if we continue to let this get out of control, to go down this path of this racial tension. This racial hatred that is being foisted on American culture by the Black Lives Matter crowd.

Unfortunately, it appears that both Stinchfield and Holton may have an extreme misunderstanding of what the 4-year-old Black Lives Matter movement is about. Here are a few things that need clearing up.

In fact, the Black Lives Matter movement was created to fight racism, specifically racialized police brutality against black and brown people.

According to the organization's official website,

#BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. We affirm our contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

We have put our sweat equity and love for Black people into creating a political projecttaking the hashtag off of social media and into the streets.The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.

The purpose of the organization is to remind mainstream (read: white) America that black lives have value, and should not be killed in such disturbing wayswith little or no consequences.

Examples of this can be seen in the case of12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot while playing with a toy gunby Police Officer Timothy Loehmann, who a grand jury opted not to charge. Loehmann was laterfired from his police force in 2017 for lying on his original application about his work history, in a situation that had nothing to do with the death of young Rice.

Another example is the more recent Philando Castile, who was fatallyshot by Officer Jeronimo Yanezwhile reaching for his ID during a traffic stop that was initially for a broken tail light in 2016. Yanez was charged and found not guilty of second-degree manslaughter in June 2017.

These officer-involved deaths are part of a larger pattern, which reveals that black people are having a vastly different experience (prone to experiencing more violence with police) than white people.

The Center of Policing Equity conducted a survey of 19,000 use-of-force incidents by officers in 11 large and midsize cities and one large urban county between2010 and 2015, according to theNew York Times.

According to the newspaper, their reports concluded that,

Although officers employ force in less than 2 percent of all police-civilian interactions, the use of police force is disproportionately high for African-Americans more than three times greater than for whites.

The Washington Post also reported thatblack people are 2.5 times more likely than white people to be shot and killed by police.

With these findings and the explicit mission that Black Lives Matter has laid out, it appears that instead of promoting racial hatred, the organization wants to encouragelife preservation and lessen the violence that is statistically proven to be part of black people's reality.

Thegroup just raised over $250,000 to bail more than 30 moms out of jailon the week of Mother's Day in May. These were women who werenot convicted of crimes, but instead were waiting for a trial and unable to afford bail.

According to TheAtlantic, Black Lives Matter also recruits and trains people to provide legal aid and an emergency response network.

The organization's own website also stresses that their cry for equality goes far beyond police brutality. Additional causes the group champions are poverty, mass incarceration, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and the rights of the disabled.

Different Black Lives Matter chapters host different events in cities across the United States. The Sacremento, California chapter is hosting a Black Joy event in August which will consist of yoga, meditation, singing, and dancing.

If you take the time to research the missionof the Black Lives Matter chapters on social media and on itsofficial website, you can find one easy conclusion: Black Lives Matter is calling for peace, healing, and equality.

That's all, NRA.

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Marquaysa is a dog mom, music junkie and lover of all things #BlackGirlMagic. She can be found shamelessly live-tweeting Ratchet TV Mondays or gazing at puppies on Insta. She has a Master's degree in journalism from NYU.

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Black Lives Matter Is Not Racist, Despite What The NRA Says - Elite Daily