’ISIS’ Enslaves about 3,500 in Iraq

Local Editor

The United Nations organization reported on Tuesday that an estimated 3,500 people, mainly women and children, are believed to be held as slaves in Iraq by "ISIS" militants who impose a harsh rule marked by gruesome public executions.

The terrorist group, which also controls large parts of neighboring Syria, committed widespread abuses that may "in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide," the report added.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the UN human rights office estimated that 3,500 people were "currently being held in slavery by "ISIS"."

"Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yazidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities," said a joint report issued in Geneva.

The report further detailed executions by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the tops of buildings.

It said the UN had information about the murder of child soldiers and verified reports suggesting between 800 and 900 children in Mosul had been abducted for military and religious training.

Relatively, the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement: "Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq."

"The figures capture those who were killed or maimed by overt violence, but countless others died from the lack of access to basic food, water or medical care," he added.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team