[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law and pointed to the kidnapping of two US soldiers last week as another example of the war crimes that are committed in Iraq. The two soldiers were kidnapped south of Baghdad last week and after their bodies were found on Tuesday [UK Times reports] they showed signs of torture. Regarding captured combatants, HRW commented that they "must be treated humanely," adding that "torture and other cruel treatment, as well as summarily executing a capture combatant, are war crimes."

The comments made by HRW come amid allegations that US soldiers have tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. The point that insurgents commit war crimes and should be held responsible also come in the middle of investigations into the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha [JURIST report], and one day after seven US Marines and one Navy corpsman were charged with murder [JURIST report] over the April death of an Iraqi man in Hamdania. HRW has more.