Missing Teenager's Body Found After Pirde Clash
The body of teenager Mohammed Hemin, missing since fighting near Pirde, has been found at Azadi Hospital as his family disputes his designation as an ISIS militant.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - The body of Mohammed Hemin, a teenager who went missing during fighting between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants near Pirde, has been found at the forensic medicine unit of Azadi Hospital in Kirkuk, his family told Kurdistan24 on Tuesday.
Kurdistan24 correspondent Soran Kamaran, reporting from Kirkuk, said the family located Mohammed's body on the morning of Sept. 29, two days after he disappeared during the clashes.
The family has refused to receive the body because, according to their account, Iraqi security forces transferred it to the hospital under the designation of an ISIS militant.
Mohammed's relatives strongly reject that classification.
They told Kurdistan24 that he was a minor with no connection to ISIS and alleged that security forces killed him by mistake before subsequently identifying him as a militant.
Iraqi security forces have yet to comment on the allegations.
Kamaran said the family had been searching for Mohammed since the fighting on Sunday.
According to the correspondent, Iraqi security forces had denied since Monday that the teenager was in their custody. The family later found his body at Azadi Hospital, where they learned that it had been transferred by security forces.
The circumstances surrounding Mohammed's death and the reason he was classified as an ISIS militant remain disputed between the family's account and the designation under which the body was delivered to the hospital.
The incident followed an armed confrontation on Sunday, Sept. 27, in the area between Kirkuk and Pirde.
According to the information provided to Kurdistan24, Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service forces clashed with ISIS militants during the operation.
Two ISIS militants and one teenager were reported killed during the fighting, while two other militants were arrested.
Mohammed Hemin went missing during the same confrontation.
His family continued searching for him until Tuesday morning, when his body was located at the hospital's forensic medicine department.
The discovery has now shifted the family's concern from his disappearance to the circumstances of his death and his official classification.
Relatives said they would not accept the body while it remained registered as belonging to an ISIS militant, insisting that Mohammed was an uninvolved teenager caught up in the fighting.
The are yet to be any reports suggesting whether an investigation has been opened into the circumstances of his death or whether security authorities intend to review the designation.
For the family, the immediate demand is that Mohammed not be treated as a member of ISIS and that the circumstances in which he died be clarified.