The persecution of Shia Muslims by ISIL involves the systematic mass murder of Shia Muslims by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which took place in the territory it formerly controlled in Iraq and Syria. Despite being the religious majority in Iraq, Shia Muslims have been killed in large numbers by ISIL, which is Sunni. On 12 June 2014, ISIL killed 1,700 unarmed Shia Iraqi Army cadet recruits in the Camp Speicher massacre. ISIL has also targeted Shia prisoners. According to witnesses, after the militant group took the city ofMosul, they divided the Sunni prisoners from the Shia prisoners. Up to 670 Shia prisoners were then taken to another location and executed. Kurdish officials in Erbil reported on the incident of Sunni and Shia prisoners being separated and Shia prisoners being killed after the Mosul prison fell to ISIL. ISIL is also responsible for the genocidal massacre and ethnic cleansing of Christians and Yazidis in northern Iraq on a "historic scale", putting entire communities "at risk of being wiped off the map of Iraq". In a special report released on 2 September 2014, Amnesty International described how ISIL had "systematically targeted non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, of individuals and forcing more than tens of thousands of Shias, Sunnis, along with other minorities to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". The most targeted Shia groups in Nineveh Governorate were Shia Turkmens and Shabak people.
The fall of Mosul
In summer 2014, Shia properties in Mosul and other ISIL-held areas were painted with the letter for Rafidah, a derogatory term for Shias used by some Sunni Muslims. Houses and shops owned by Shias were confiscated by ISIL and given to local ISIL supporters or ISIL foreign fighters. Thousands of Shia Shabaks and Turkmen fled the cities of Mosul, Tal Afar, and the rest of Nineveh Governorate to safer Shia-majority areas further south.
Thousands of Shias from villages in Salahudin and Kirkuk governorates fled to neighbouring villages in Kirkuk after three Shia villages were attacked by ISIL and at least 40 civilians including children were killed near the town of Bashir.
ISIL views Shia Muslims as polytheists and heretics. Therefore, it started a campaign to destroy all Shia shrines, mosques and places of worship in Nineveh and all ISIL-held areas. Reports stated that at least 10 Shia shrines and hussiniyas including historical ones in Mosul and Tal Afar were demolished or blown up by ISIL during this campaign. In July 2016, ISIL attacked a Shia shrine during the Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi Mausoleum attack, killing anywhere from 56 to at least 100 people.
“In my judgment, Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims" - John Kerry
Kerry's statement came the same week the US House voted 383–0 in favor of classifying the atrocities committed by ISIL as a genocide against certain ethnic and religious minorities in its territories.
