UNITED NATIONS: A UN human rights report has said that Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, kidnapped women and girls and recruited child soldiers in what could amount to systematic war crimes.

The report based on 500 interviews with witnesses and released on Thursday also said that air strikes carried out by Iraqi government against IS militants had caused “significant civilian deaths” by hitting villages and hospitals in violation of international law.

At least 9,347 civilians have been killed and 17,386 wounded so far this year, well over half of them since the IS, also known as ISIS, began seizing large parts of northern Iraq in early June, according to the 29-page report by the UN Human Rights Office and UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.

“The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIS and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein.

In a statement, he again urged the Iraqi government to join the International Criminal Court, and said the Hague court was set up to prosecute such massive abuses and the direct targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious or ethnic groups.

Islamist forces have committed gross human rights violations and violence of an “increasing sectarian nature” against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shias in a widening conflict that has forced 1.8 million Iraqis to flee their homes, according to the report.

“These 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,” said the report.

In a single massacre on June 12, the report said, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and security officers from the former US Camp Speicher base in Salahuddin province were captured and killed by IS fighters.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014