Islamic State militants are carrying out mass executions, abducting girls to use as sex slaves and have conscripted child soldiers to fight for them, the UN has said in a new report.
The Daily Mail says that the report accuses the group of systematic war crimes in Iraq, and accuses ISIS fighters of severe human rights violations in their persecution of groups including Christians and Yazidis, as well as other Muslims.
The report says that atrocities committed by the group include:
“attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.”
It says that in one single massacre on 12 June this year, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers from the Camp Speicher military base, formerly run by the US, were captured and executed.
Women have been particularly badly treated by the group, with the report adding: “ISIL attacked and killed female doctors, lawyers, among other professionals.”
In one example, the group took 400-500 captured women to Tal Afar in August, where “150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIS fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves”.
Zeid Ra’ad Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
He added that the Baghdad government should join the International Criminal Court, as it was set up to deal with such crimes, including the targeting of civilians on the basis of the religion of ethnicity.
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