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FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014, file photo, a Shiite militiaman stands guard in Amirli, where 15,000 Shiite Turkmens were stranded in the farming community surrounded by militants since mid-July, 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's Shiite militias have abducted and killed "scores" of Sunni civilians in retaliation for the onslaught by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, Amnesty International said Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, claiming that the attacks are supported by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The Shiite militiamen number in the tens of thousands and wear military uniforms but operate outside any legal framework and without any official oversight, Amnesty said. (AP Photo, File)
BAGHDAD (AP) Iraq's Shiite militias have abducted and killed "scores" of Sunni civilians with the tacit support of the government in retaliation for Islamic State group attacks, Amnesty International said Tuesday, as a suicide car bombing killed 23 people, including a Shiite lawmaker.
The Shiite militiamen number in the tens of thousands and wear military uniforms but operate outside any legal framework and without any official oversight, the London-based watchdog warned in its new report, entitled "Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq." It said the militiamen are never prosecuted for their crimes.
FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014, file photo, Shiite militiamen patrol in Amirli, 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's Shiite militias have abducted and killed "scores" of Sunni civilians in retaliation for the onslaught by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, Amnesty International said Tuesday Oct. 14, 2014, claiming that the attacks are supported by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. Amnesty says the government is not doing its job to prosecute Shiite militia crimes but is also condoning them. After Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, fell to the militants in June, then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called upon volunteers to reinforce the humiliated military, and many Shiite militias quickly reported for duty. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP)
The accusations were based on interviews with families and survivors who claimed that members of four prominent Iraqi Shiite militias Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the Badr Brigades, the Mahdi Army, and Ketaeb Hizbollah were behind the abduction and killing of many Sunnis.
Sunni insurgents have regularly targeted Shiite neighborhoods with car bombs and other attacks since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and in June the Islamic State extremist group swept across northern Iraq, seizing the second largest city Mosul.
In the aftermath of the onslaught, then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on volunteers to support the Iraqi army, leading several powerful militias -- many with links to neighboring Iran -- to mobilize to defend the country.
The revival of the militias has deepened the sense of alienation among the country's Sunni minority -- seen as a key factor behind the rise of the Islamic State group -- and has raised fears of a return to the sectarian conflict that gripped the country in 2006 and 2007.
Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, from al-Maliki's Shiite Islamist Dawa party, has pledged to bring the militants under control, but Amnesty said the government has not only failed to prosecute Shiite militiamen but has openly condoned their actions.
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Iraq: Suicide car bomb in Baghdad kills 19