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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