IS propaganda video claims to show fighters from Iraqi volunteer forces burned alive

A new propaganda video circulated by supporters of the Islamic State (IS) claims to show the burning alive of four members of Iraq’s volunteer forces, the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

The unverified footage claims to show the men, who identify themselves as members of the force, being suspended in chains from scaffolding before being set on fire.

A masked militant is heard referring to the gruesome killing as “retribution” for alleged crimes attributed to the volunteer force.

“We will attack them as they attacked us, and punish them as they punished us,” a fighter is heard to say.

The Popular Mobilisation Force, which is commonly referred to as a militia but rejects that definition, was formed in June 2014 after a call from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the country’s most revered Shiite figures.

The force includes small numbers of Sunni fighters, but remains dominated by Shias.

While attempting to diminish IS’s strangehold on Iraq’s Sunni heartland, the force has been accused by groups like Human Rights Watch of looting and burning homes in Sunni villages.

IS’s latest propaganda video includes footage claiming to show a man, identified as a Sunni, being suspended above a fire while members of the Popular Mobilisation Force look on.

The new video, circulated by social media users supportive of IS, does not include an alleged time or location for the killings.

It does, however, include a stamp of the group’s local franchise in Anbar, the huge Sunni-dominated province where IS holds sway.

Retaking Anbar has been a key goal of the Baghdad government, led by Haider al-Abadi, who recently undertook a series of sweeping reforms including replacing military commanders working in the province.

Despite efforts by the central government, the official armed forces and the Popular Mobilisation Force, backed up by US-led airstrikes targeting IS, have faced a number of setbacks.

Most recently, local news sites reported this week that up to 1,500 members of the Popular Mobilisation Force had withdrawn from the fighting in Anbar in protest after US advisors were brought in.

The force moved to deny the reports, saying on Sunday that the advisors were “not working on the ground,” and that after the disastrous US-led occupation of Iraq from 2003, “the Americans cannot liberate a single acre of our land”.

“The Popular Mobilisation Force takes its orders from the Iraqi government,” spokesperson Ahmed al-Assadi told local news site Sumaria News.