Iraq's Government Forces Murdered Imprisoned Sunnis Before Running Away in the Wake of ISIS Advance

Screen capture from YouTube video.

By Arwa Damon, Raja Razek and Chelsea J. Carter
Crammed into a prison cell with 36 other people, the man debated his fate as he listened to the shelling.

Outside, fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fired mortars at the anti-terrorism detention facility in Tal Afar, where fierce battles raged between the al Qaeda splinter group and Iraqi security forces.

With the facility close to being overrun by ISIS fighters, the prison guards did the unthinkable.

"At about 2 a.m., three of the guards came into our cell ... and they opened fire with a machine gun," the man said in a video obtained by CNN.

The account mirrors allegations put forward by Amnesty International, which released a report Friday saying it has evidence pointing to a pattern of "extrajudicial executions" of Sunni detainees by government forces and Shiite militias in Tal Afar, Mosul and Baquba, cities where Iraqi forces were either routed or have been locked in fierce battles with ISIS fighters and allied Sunni militants.

"The killings suggest a worrying pattern of reprisal attacks against Sunnis in retaliation for ISIS gains," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, who is currently in northern Iraq.

Read More