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(Beirut) The Kurdistan Regional Governments (KRG) Peshmerga forces are stopping thousands of civilians fleeing territory held by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) for up to three months at checkpoints, including on the front lines, apparently based on general security concerns, and in many cases preventing their access to humanitarian assistance, Human Rights Watch said today. The KRG is obliged to facilitate rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need and to allow those fleeing to reach safety.

Peshmerga forces stand guard at a checkpoint in northern Iraq.

The civilians, including entire families, have been fleeing Hawija, 60 kilometers south of Mosul, and Tal Afar, 55 kilometers west of Mosul, which have been under the control of ISIS since June 2014. There are still 80,000 civilians in Hawija and another 20,000 in Tal Afar, United Nations staff told Human Rights Watch.

All armed forces in Iraq should be doing their utmost to help civilians reach safety, and to get food, water and medicine, said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The situation will become even more urgent when anti-ISIS forces begin operations to retake Hawija and Tal Afar.

Four individuals with their families, who had been stopped at checkpoints, and two people with direct knowledge of the movement of people fleeing these areas told Human Rights Watch that at each of the four checkpoints where families tried to enter KRG-held territory, Peshmerga forces stopped civilians for days, weeks, and even in one case up to three months, in many cases leaving them vulnerable to ISIS mortar and suicide attacks and without food and badly needed assistance.

One man who was held at a checkpoint with his family for three days in Maktab Khalid, a destroyed village on the frontline and within ISIS shelling range, said: I spent those three days scared that ISIS would kill all of us, and, at the same time, that my children would freeze to death. Those three days were the most horrible days of my life.

Another described how his 6-month-old baby died of lack of milk as his family waited to be allowed to cross.

One of those with direct knowledge of the movement of people fleeing via the Maktab Khalid crossing told Human Rights Watch that on several occasions in April and May 2017, Peshmerga forces prevented dozens of civilians from crossing for up to 14 days and prevented humanitarian organizations from delivering humanitarian assistance to them. Another person with direct knowledge of the movement of people fleeing via the Peshmergas Daquq checkpoint, 17 kilometers from the frontline, also said that Peshmerga forces prevented civilians from crossing there for up to 16 days and limited their access to aid.

An Iraqi government official said that he interviewed dozens of families who had passed through Maktab Khalid over the past year who said that when they arrived Peshmerga forces took their names and then told them that they would only allow them to cross once the size of the crowd had reached at least 300 families. He said that he raised concerns about not allowing the civilians to cross in a timely way with the Kirkuk governor and Peshmerga commanders, and was told these measures were needed to screen civilians for ISIS affiliation before allowing them through.

This stated security rationale, however, contradicts statements from families who told the official and Human Rights Watch that they were only allowed to cross when large numbers amassed at the checkpoint. Other families said that when they arrived, a large number of families were already at the checkpoint, they were only kept for a few hours before being allowed to cross.

Since April 18, more than 5,000 people fleeing Tal Afar attempted to enter KRG-held territory via a Peshmerga checkpoint in Shindukhan, a village on the front lines, and were held by Peshmerga forces there for one to three days with no food, water, or shelter before they were taken to Sahlej, a nearby village 10 kilometers from the frontline and within ISIS shelling range, said one of the people with direct knowledge of the movement of people fleeing in the area.

According to the UN, Peshmerga forces held an estimated 200 civilians fleeing Tal Afar for more than two months at a checkpoint in al-Fadhilya, 15 kilometers north of Mosul and 22 kilometers from the frontline. Aid agencies and partners were not allowed direct access to provide aid. A source following developments said that in early June, after three months, the families were allowed through and on to camps for displaced people.

In June 2017, Human Rights Watch shared its findings with the KRGs High Committee to Evaluate International Organizations Reports and asked for comment but at the time of publication had not received a response.

Security forces may have genuine security concerns and are entitled to screen those fleeing ISIS-controlled areas. But authorities should make medical care, including first aid, promptly available to everyone at screening sites. Authorities running the screening centers should locate them as far from hostilities as possible. Authorities should also promptly identify vulnerable people and give them priority in the screening process, including those needing immediate medical assistance, and provide them with any assistance needed including shelter, food, milk for infants, and water.

Under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict should take all feasible steps to evacuate the civilian population from the vicinity of fighting or military objects, and take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from harm. All parties are also obliged to facilitate rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need. KRG authorities should ensure prompt independent judicial review of detention and allow detainees to have access to lawyers and medical care and to communicate with their families. Anyone held for an extended period without being able to leave should be considered as being detained.

These families have lived for years under the horrific abuses of ISIS, months with limited food, water, and medicine, and have just risked their lives trying to get to safety, Fakih said. Delaying people fleeing ISIS from reaching safety and getting the help they need is inhumane.

Families Describe Being Held at Checkpoints

Many families fleeing Hawija and Tel Afar have tried to enter KRG-held territory via several main checkpoints, including at Maktab Khalid, 15 kilometers west of Kirkuk; Daquq, 30 kilometers south of Kirkuk; Shindukhan, 40 kilometers northwest of Mosul; and al-Fadhilya, 15 kilometers north of Mosul.

Human Rights Watch interviewed four men who said they and their families were kept at Maktab Khalid for between one and three days.

One man from Hawija said he arrived at Maktab Khalid in November 2016, with six members of his family and enough food for one meal for the whole family. He said that Peshmerga officers prevented him and his family and hundreds of others from crossing for three days, saying they would only let families cross once the number waiting was big enough. The family sought shelter in a destroyed, abandoned building with no blankets. During that time, on a few occasions, officers gave him a bit of dry bread, which he gave to his children, he said.

Despite raising concerns with a Peshmerga officer at the checkpoint about ISIS attacks and his familys security, he said the officer dismissed these saying, Your safety is not our responsibility. We are not responsible if ISIS attacks you because you are not yet in our territory. He added:

By the third morning, my 9-year-old daughter was no longer moving or speaking, because of the severe cold and the lack of food. When they finally let us through, I had to carry her the whole way. Finally, an officer gave her some water.

Another man, 25, from Hawija, who arrived at Maktab Khalid on December 24 with his family and about 300 other people said Peshmerga officers informed him that they would only allow the families to cross once there were more than 500 people there. He said he was able to call relatives in Kirkuk who delivered them food via Peshmerga officers there but that in the three days they were there many other families went without. We were lucky, but many families spent those days without any food, he said. I saw old men and women too weak to walk by the last day.

Another man from Hawija said he reached Maktab Khalid in January, with his family and about 200 other people, only to have Peshmerga forces stop them there for days without any food. He said:

My 6-month-old son, Khalid, started crying on the first day, it was so cold and we had no milk to give him, because my wife had not eaten for three days. I went to the Peshmerga officers and asked if they had any food or milk, but they said they didnt. I begged them to let us cross but they refused, saying the number of people had to be bigger before they would let us all cross. I knew Khalid would die, and he did the next day. It was a sad day for me. I escaped ISIS in order to give my children a chance to survive and have a better life, but I lost him. I had to bury him right there in the desert.

The man said that his daughter, Khalids twin sister, survived but suffered severe dehydration. She was still receiving medical treatment when Human Rights Watch interviewed him on May 23.

The person who had knowledge of people who were stopped at Maktab Khalid said that 140 civilians were stopped on April 3 for 14 days and that assistance was only provided on Day 10; that 81 civilians were stopped on April 18 for six days; 31 on May 5 for 12 days, with assistance after nine days; 61 including eight with critical health conditions, on May 27, with two critically ill civilians allowed to cross around May 30, and the rest held for nine days.

One of the people with knowledge of the Daquq checkpoint said that eight families were stopped on April 3 for 16 days, with a local aid group only able to provide them 10 assistance kits containing food and water.

Then, on May 15, the source said the Peshmerga stopped a family with a sick elderly family member. The ailing woman was taken to a hospital on May 20, but returned later the same day. Her situation continued to deteriorate and on May 24 the family requested that the Peshmerga forces take her back to the hospital, but they refused. The person said that the Peshmerga refused permission for aid to be delivered at the end of May and as of June 6, the family was still stuck there, and had been joined by two more families.

An Iraqi government official confirmed the presence of the three families, saying the relatives had contacted him with the same concerns.

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Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Thousands Fleeing Kept Waiting Near Front Line - Human Rights Watch

As fighting in Marawi City enters a fifth week, Philippine security forces are working to regain control, amid a rising death toll.

More than 350 people have been killed in the fighting between government forces and IS-affiliated fighters in the city in Mindanao Province, according to an official count.

Residents forced to flee have said they have seen scores of bodies in the debris of homes destroyed in bombing and cross-fire.

The seizure of Marawi by fighters from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, and the battle to regain control of it has prompted concerns IS - on the backfoot in Iraq and Syria - is trying to set up a stronghold in the Muslim south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines that could threaten the whole region.

In 2014 a terror group, then known as ISIS, broke into global news coverage with a powerful, sweeping attack from Syria into Iraq.

Taking over territory, weaponry, oil wells and major cities, the group proclaimed a hardline Islamist caliphate and shocked the world with gory execution videos of fighters, foreign aid workers and journalists who were caught in their war.

But a wave of attacks by IS supporters in Europe, the United States and across the Middle East in recent weeks has masked significant defeats against the groups self-proclaimed caliphate.

As the group is squeezed out of Iraq and faces losses in Syria, experts say the IS is increasingly looking internationally to spread its rhetoric, money and influence.

In South East Asia, it appears IS has found fertile ground.

Greg Feeley, an Associate Professor with the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, says a key indicator of the shift in strategy occurred last year, when the group appointed Isnilon Hapilon as Emir in South East Asia.

The Filipino militant has been leading a violent Islamist rebellion in the southern Philippines for years, now hes officially a member of IS.

With tunnels, snipers and food supplies, the group has taken over the majority Muslim city of Marawi and has proved adept at urban warfare despite being outnumbered by Filipino troops.

The government has been not only surprised, but shocked as well given the loss of lives, and also embarrassed that this group has proved to be so potent militarily and so well prepared, Feeley said

Trapped Filipino villagers are escorted by government troops during a rescue operation in Marawi city, Mindanao island, southern Philippines, 31 May 2017.

Fighting alongside Abu Sayyaf are fighters recruited by two Muslim brothers Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute.

The Maute Group emerged as a small group around 2012, from a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao and now poses a major threat to security in the Philippines.

But the initial success of the group, that recently announced links to IS - and other such linked groups in the Philippines - contrasts with major losses suffered by the groups self-proclaimed caliphate in the Middle East.

IS is on the brink of defeat in Mosul, the groups last major stronghold in Iraq, and faces sustained pressure from coalition and government forces in Syria.

IS is now looking to diversify and decentralize, experts say.

Hapilons official IS title of bestows a degree of prestige in jihadist circles, Feeley says, and came after groups in South East Asia jostled for official endorsement from IS.

The group has three things IS values fighting forces, resources and a degree of territorial control.

But the rise of an IS offshoot in the Asia Pacific isnt immediate cause for concern for threat levels in Australia, Feeley says.

The development worsens the level of terrorism threat in South East Asia, but the impact is more for South East Asia than Australia, he said.

Relatively few IS sympathisers in Australia come from an Asian background, Feeley notes.

Of greater current concern to Australian authorities are so called lone wolf attacks, once described by a former ASIO chief as a recurring nightmare for the security agency.

As ISIS comes under growing pressure in Syria and Iraq, its certainly both rhetorically and operationally been encouraging people to undertake attacks overseas, Feeley said.

Its a new emphasis on a strategy some security experts describe as remote radicalisation for inspired attacks.

Intelligence agencies say they have been frustrated by the increased availability of encrypted communications enabling would-be radicals.

The Brighton siege earlier this month in which an innocent man was killed and three police were injured was claimed by IS as an attack, despite no clear evidence of direct coordination.

It has violence, it has a shock factor, and so ISIS is taking credit for it, Feeley said.

Often what IS is doing is encouraging and taking credit for jihadists who undertake attacks around the world.

The prominent attacks allow IS to project an image of power and reach, ensuring they remain the biggest brand in Islamist terror.

Feeley says in the last 12 months the emphasis has shifted from recruitment of foreign fighters to encouraging home-grown attacks.

The group, which began as an Iraqi Al Qaeda offshoot in the chaos following the US invasion, has proved to be agile and adaptable in the past.

After Syria spun into civil war in 2011, the group moved north from Iraq and became a dominant extremist group among the Syrian chaos.

ASIO head Duncan Lewis told Senate Estimates last month that the threat of Islamist terrorism wasnt going to end with the defeat of IS in Iraq and Syria.

Well beyond the physical existence of this so-called caliphate, the threat of terrorism and the threat of a terrorist attack against Australians and Australian interests will continue, he said.

This is not the end, and it is not the beginning of the end - it is more like the end of the beginning.

We do not see this finishing any time soon.

With Reuters

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Pushed out of Iraq, IS looks to expand in Asia - SBS

Leaked US military files provided to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning did not significantly harm national security, according to a recently released Department of Defense secret report published by BuzzFeed.

The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, providing access to classified intelligence, military and diplomatic documents, has been making headlines since its creation. The US government was hunting and prosecuting whistleblowers, saying the leaks pose a huge threat to national security. But it turns out that the leaked data, specifically on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was not so sensitive, a secret 107-page document obtained by the BuzzFeed News revealed.

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A task force of more than 20 US agencies, including NSA, CIA and FBI, carried out a line-by-line review of more than 740,000 records of known or believed compromised WikiLeaks data available as for 2011. The document was provided to BuzzFeed under a Freedom of Information Act, in response to a request filed in 2015. However, it was not fully disclosed, with only 35 pages available.

Following the comprehensive analysis, the report concludes that WikiLeaks disclosures on operation in Afghanistan has no significant strategic impact, while it is still potentially damaging for intelligence sources, informants, and the Afghan population as well as for the US and NATO collection methods and capabilities.

The leaks on the war in Iraq have no direct personal impact on current and former senior US leadership Iraq, as the reports references to it are not damaging in any way, according to the Information Review Task Force (IRTF) assessments.

The review also has chapters on leaked Guantanamo records, as well as separate parts on Baghdad and Gerani airstrikes, carried out by the US Air Force during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan correspondingly. The attacks received worldwide coverage and condemnation following the WikiLeaks posting the video of the airstrikes. However, the provided pages of the document do not include any assessment whether those leaked videos were harmful.

READ MORE:'A testimony of evil': How Mannings 'Collateral Murder' revelation changed history

US Army private and whistleblower Chelsea Manning provided 700,000 military documents on Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks in 2010. For leaking classified information Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013. She had served seven years behind bars before being pardoned by then-President Barack Obama and released in May.

The IRTF report also mentions another whistleblower and WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, saying with moderate confidence that his insurance file does not have anything beyond that which the IRTF has already reviewed. The task force related to Assanges password-protected file, purportedly having additional leaks, in case anything happened to him.

READ MORE:Comey hailed as intelligence porn star by Assange, as Snowden defends leak

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WikiLeaks disclosures on Iraq, Afghanistan did not damage US report - RT

By Maher Chmaytelli | ERBIL, Iraq

ERBIL, Iraq Iraq's army said it had encircled Islamic State's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul on Tuesday after taking over an area to the north of the densely populated historic district.

The army's 9th armored division seized al-Shifaa district, which includes the city's main hospitals, alongside the western bank of the Tigris river, a military statement said.

The fall of Shifaa means the Old City in the eastern half of Mosul is now surrounded by U.S.-backed government forces, deployed north, west, south and east, across the river.

The battle for the Old City is becoming the deadliest in the eight-month old U.S.-backed offensive to capture Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital in Iraq and the largest city the group came to control in the country.

A mine explosion on Monday at the Old City frontline killed two journalists, Stephane Villeneuve from France and Bakhtiar Haddad from Iraq, and wounded two other French reporters, according to foreign ministry and diplomatic sources in Paris.

Aid organizations are expressing alarm at the situation of more than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are children, trapped in its old fragile houses with little food, water and medicine and no electricity.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday sick and wounded civilians escaping through Islamic State lines were dying in "high numbers".

The militants are moving stealthily in the Old City's maze of alleyways and narrow streets, through holes dug between houses, fighting back the advancing troops with sniper and mortar fire, booby traps and suicide bombers.

They have also covered many streets with cloths to obstruct air surveillance, making it difficult for the advancing troops to hit them without a risk to civilians.

The Iraqi army estimates the number of Islamic State fighters at no more than 300, down from nearly 6,000 in the city

when the battle of Mosul started on Oct. 17.

A U.S.-led international coalition is providing air and

ground support.

A program presenter who had worked for Islamic State's Mosul-based Al-Bayan radio station, Alaa Sami al-Khateeb, was arrested on Tuesday in eastern Mosul, according to an Iraqi army statement. Al-Khateeb was denounced by residents, it said.

GROUND SUPPORT

The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared three years ago and which once covered swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi government initially hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the campaign took longer as militants reinforced positions in civilian areas to fight back.

The militants are also retreating in Syria, mainly in the face of a U.S.-backed Kurdish-led coalition. Its capital there,

Raqqa, is under siege.

About 850,000 people, more than a third of the pre-war population of the northern Iraqi city, have fled, seeking refuge with relatives or in camps, according to aid groups.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi headed on Tuesday to Iran, the second leg of a Middle East tour after Saudi Arabia to pursue efforts to foster regional reconciliation and coordination against terrorism.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a coordination council to upgrade strategic ties, a joint statement said on Tuesday at the end his talks with Saudi King Salman a day earlier. After Iran, he will visit Kuwait.

Iraq lies on the fault line between Shi'ite Iran and the mostly-Sunni Arab world. Deep-running animosity and distrust between the two sides is fuelled by sectarian divides.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin in Dubai; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Ralph Boulton)

BRUSSELS Belgian troops shot a suspected "terrorist" bomber in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday but there were no other casualties and the situation was brought under control after people were evacuated, officials said.

WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department bluntly questioned on Tuesday the motives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their boycott of Doha, saying it was "mystified" the Gulf states had not released their grievances over Qatar.

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Iraq's army encircles Islamic State in Mosul's Old City: military - Reuters

In light of recent developments, the Council discussed and adopted conclusions on Iraq. In its conclusions, the Council commends the Iraqi Government of Prime Minister al-Abadi and the Iraqi security forces for the significant advances they have made in the military campaign against Da'esh over the past months. It also reiterates its steadfast support for Iraq's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Council emphasises the importance of an inclusive process of reconciliation both at national and local level, and the need to make tangible progress on political reforms to enable full national reconciliation.

The EU has expressed its highest concern about the humanitarian situation in Iraq. The EU remains fully engaged through its humanitarian assistance, with 159 million in 2016 and EUR 42 million in 2017 so far for humanitarian support to populations moist affected by the conflict.

The EU underscores the importance of security and the rule of law for stability in the liberated areas and across the whole country. It is essential that security agencies improve their relation with the civilian population. For this purpose, the EU and its Member States are already providing support to Iraq in the security sector. In response to the request by the Iraqi authorities, the EU is examining the deployment of an EU Security Sector Reform Advice and Assist Team to assist in the reform efforts in cooperation and coherence with other international partners.

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Iraq: Council adopts conclusions - EU News