MOSUL, Iraq — The Iraqi army said Sunday that troops have driven Islamic State militants out of the town of Nimrud, south of Mosul, near the site of famed ancient Assyrian ruins that were reportedly destroyed by the extremists. BAGHDAD — The security forces of Iraq's regional Kurdish government have routinely destroyed Arab homes and even some whole villages in areas retaken from the Islamic State group over the past two years, according to a new report issued Sunday by Human Rights Watch. For example, in villages in Nineveh governorate visited by Human Rights Watch researchers, it appears that the KRG destroyed only Arab homes while leaving Kurdish ones intact.”

The group said researchers found demolished Arab buildings in towns such as Bardiya, Iraq next to intact Kurdish buildings, and the intact Kurdish part of Hamad Agha village. It says the demolitions took place in disputed areas in northern Iraq which the Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government. In many of these cases, the group says, “In village after village in Kirkuk and Nineveh, [Kurdistan Regional Government] security forces destroyed Arab homes – but not those belonging to Kurds – for no legitimate military purpose,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch says.
Human Rights Watch says that Kurdish Regional Government forces have destroyed Arab homes and villages in northern Iraq in what may amount to a war crime.