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HRW Says Hamas Committed War Crimes on Oct. 7

FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
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HRW Says Hamas Committed War Crimes on Oct. 7

FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Human Rights Watch said Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and at least four other Palestinian armed groups "committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel.”

According to its findings, these included "deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects; willful killing of persons in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; sexual and gender-based violence; hostage taking; mutilation and despoiling of bodies; use of human shields; and pillage and looting.”

In response, Hamas rejected "the lies and blatant bias" towards Israel and demanded Human Rights Watch withdraw its report and apologize.

"The Human Rights Watch report adopted the entire Israeli narrative and moved away from the method of scientific research and the neutral legal position, and became more like an Israeli propaganda document," Hamas said in a statement.

The 230-page HRW report focuses only on the Oct. 7 attacks and does not examine the actions taken by Hamas or Israel during the subsequent war in Gaza. More than 38,400 people have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments in Gaza since the war began, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

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US Military: ISIS Attacks on Track to Double in Iraq, Syria Compared to Last Year

FILE - A motorist passes by a flag of ISIS in central Rawah, 281 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2014. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - A motorist passes by a flag of ISIS in central Rawah, 281 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2014. (AP Photo, File)
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US Military: ISIS Attacks on Track to Double in Iraq, Syria Compared to Last Year

FILE - A motorist passes by a flag of ISIS in central Rawah, 281 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2014. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - A motorist passes by a flag of ISIS in central Rawah, 281 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2014. (AP Photo, File)

The US Central Command said Wednesday that ISIS is trying "to reconstitute” as the number of attacks in Syria and Iraq is on track to double those of the previous year.

ISIS has claimed 153 attacks in both countries in the first six months of 2024, CENTCOM said in a statement. According to a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't allowed to speak publicly on the matter, the group was behind 121 attacks in Syria and Iraq in 2023.

“The increase in attacks indicates ISIS is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” The Associated Press quoted CENTCOM as saying.

A coalition of more than 80 countries, led by the United States, was formed to fight ISIS, which lost its hold on the territory it controlled in Iraq and 2017 and in Syria in 2019, although sleeper cells remain in both countries and abroad.

Iraqi officials say that they can keep ISIS threat under control with their own forces and have entered into talks with the US aimed at winding down the mission of the US-led military coalition in Iraq.
The talks come at a time of increased domestic tensions over the US military presence.

From October to February, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched regular drone attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria, which they said was in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza and were aimed at forcing US forces to withdraw from Iraq.

Those attacks largely halted after three US soldiers were killed in a strike on a base in Jordan, near the Syrian border in late January, prompting US retaliatory strikes in Iraq.

On Tuesday, two Iraqi militia officials said they had launched a new drone attack targeting the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. It was unclear whether the attack had hit its target. US officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.