Iraq probes report of rights abuses in Mosul operation

Iraq is investigating a report that members of a special forces unit carried out torture, summary killings and rapes during the operation to retake Mosul, the interior ministry said yesterday.

The Islamic State jihadist group seized Mosul and swathes of other territory in 2014 in an offensive aided by widespread anti-government sentiment among Sunni Arabs angered by their political marginalisation and by security forces operating with impunity.

Abuses such as those described in the report in German magazine Der Spiegel that sparked the investigation could sow the seeds of future conflict even as security forces near the end of the battle for Mosul, IS's most emblematic stronghold.

"The Internal Affairs Directorate is carrying out the investigations and all the details will be announced upon completion," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told AFP.

Maan said in an earlier statement that the interior minister had ordered an investigation into the veracity of the Der Spiegel report.