On June 20, 2017, at approximately 11:00 pm, a military pickup truck carrying four armed men dressed in uniform showed up at Al Mhemeed’s home in the Al Ma'moun al Kwar neighbourhood in west Mosul, Ninewa. They knocked on the door of the house before informing Al Mhemeed’s father that they were looking for his son. When the father asked the gunmen why his son was wanted, they replied that they were from the National Security Service (NSS) and had questions for him.

Until March 2015, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fully controlled the village of Al Dur, located in the Salah Al Din governorate. In January 2015, Iraqi security forces, with the help of militias affiliated with the PMU, launched an offensive to liberate various parts of the Salah Al Din governorate, including the district of Al Dur.

Fearing clashes between ISIL militants and government forces, hundreds of families fled from Al Dur to take shelter in the rural areas nearby, including in farmlands and farmhouses situated in the Jallam Al Dur area.

On September 1, 2017, Abdullah Al Taei was arrested by members of the Anti-Crime Directorate of the Ministry of Interior. A secret informant had provided the authorities with the information that Taei had allegedly been involved in terrorism-related activities with ISIL.

On December 29, 2015, Ahmed Al Humady took a taxi from Mosul to Sulaymaniyah, via Baghdad, to retrieve his tanker truck that had been parked in Sulaymaniyah for several months. He was accompanied by some of his friends as well as a woman travelling to Baghdad too. As the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had blocked the Mosul-Baghdad highway at the time, the passengers took a different route, including through Anbar.

On June 25, 2017, at around 11 pm, three members of the Radd Al Serya forces (SWAT) arrived at Fazaa Al Shabani’s house in the Al Uboor neighbourhood of Markaz Mosul sub-district. After raiding the house and threatening Al Shabani’s family members, they confiscated his ID card and then arrested him.

His family learned about rumours that an officer stationed at the Akrabi checkpoint in the Mosul district had informed the SWAT forces about Al Shabani’s alleged affiliation with ISIL. At the time of Al Shabani’s arrest, the city of Mosul had just been liberated from ISIL.

Before his arrest, Sheet Younis Ayid Ahmed Al Obaidy used to work as an engineer at the Mosul Textile Factory where he was the Head of the Electricity Department.

On February 5, 2016, Al Obaidy travelled by taxi with five of his colleagues from Mosul to Baghdad to receive their salaries from the Ministry of Industry.

Since the Mosul - Baghdad highway was then closed by ISIL, they used the Mosul - Al Jazeera- Al Rutba - Baghdad road instead. They spent the night at Al Rutba, and in the morning of February 6, 2016, they intended to proceed to Baghdad.

On the night of March 17-18, 2017, around four members of the SWAT forces “Radd Al Sarye” entered the house of Mr Al Shabani in Hamam Al Alil sub-district, Al Arej neighbourhood, Ninewa. The SWAT forces reviewed Mr Al Shabani’s ID and then arrested him, without giving any reason for his arrest. The victim’s father wanted to accompany his son, but the forces prevented him from doing so.

On December 6, 2015, Mohamed Sa'ad Younis Husain Al Shahwany hired a taxi to travel from Mosul to Baghdad and then continue to Kirkuk, as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had blocked the Mosul-Kirkik road. He intended to return his fuel tanker that had been parked in Kirkuk for several months already.

Sherwan Sherwani is an independent Iraqi Kurdish journalist who mainly investigates and denounces cases of human rights violations and social injustice in the Kurdistan Region as well as of political corruption within the regional governmental institutions. Sherwani had been subjected to harassment and intimidation by the Kurdish authorities due to his journalistic activities in the past already.