An estimated 3,500 people, mainly women and children, are believed to be held as slaves in Iraq by Islamic State militants who impose a harsh rule marked by gruesome public executions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The militant group, which also controls large parts of neighbouring Syria, has committed widespread abuses that may “in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide,” the report said.
The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq and the U.N. human rights office estimated that 3,500 people were “currently being held in slavery by ISIL”.
“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 the joint report issued in Geneva.
The report detailed executions by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings.
It said the U.N. had information about the murder of child soldiers and had verified reports suggesting between 800 and 900 children in Mosul had been abducted for military and religious training.
“Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq,” U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.
“The figures capture those who were killed or maimed by overt violence, but countless others have died from the lack of access to basic food, water or medical care.” He added that the report laid bare the “horror” that Iraqi refugees were attempting to escape when they fled to Europe and other regions.
Salaries slashed
Meanwhile, a report claimed that the IS has decided to cut the salaries of its fighters by half blaming the “exceptional circumstances”, a sign of worsening financial situation of the outfit.
The group’s Bayt al-Mal, the Treasury Ministry, has decided to cut the salaries of its fighters by half, The Jerusalem Post said, citing new documents released last month.
The IS decision came amid reports of a U.S.-led coalition air strike this month that destroyed a cash storage facility in Mosul.
‘19,000 civilians killed in 2 years in Iraq’
Nearly 19,000 civilians were killed in war-torn Iraq with a staggering total of over 55,000 casualties since 2014, said a new UN report released on Tuesday.
At least 18,802 civilians have been killed and another 36,245 wounded between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2015, stated the report jointly compiled by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Of the total number of casualties, at least 3,855 civilians were killed and 7,056 wounded between May 1 and October 31 last year — the period covered by the report.
Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala governorates were the most severely affected with Baghdad accounting for more than half of the deaths recording 6,168 civilian casualties.
“Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq,” said the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
However, the OHCHR and UNAMI say that these figures may be highly underestimated because of the lack of methods to verify certain incidents, the lack of access to some particularly volatile areas and the fear of reprisals by sources.
Child soldiers
Between 800 and 900 child soldiers have been abducted by the Islamic State (IS) from Mosul for military training of which many were murdered when they tried to flee from the frontlines of the Anbar province.
IEDs continue to be one of the most significant militant tactics that kill civilians.
“During the reporting period, at least 1,717 civilians have been killed from these tactics (IEDs) alone,” said Francesco Motta, chief of the UN human rights office in Iraq.
The UN has confirmed reports of unlawful killings and abductions by the Iraqi Security Forces and associated forces of the government, including militia and tribal forces (Shia, Sunni and others), popular mobilisation units, and Peshmerga (pro-government Kurdish forces).
The devastating civil war in Iraq that began in 2014 has internally displaced at least 3.2 million people.
