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WORLD NEWS | UN: Iraqi Christians victims of ISIS war crimes

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United Nations, Dec. 2 (AP) Evidence gathered in Iraq strengthens initial findings that Islamic State extremists captured about a third of the country in 2014, a U.N. investigation team said in a report. Crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against the Christian community circulated Thursday after the territory.

The report to the UN Security Council said the crimes included the forcible transfer and persecution of Christians, the confiscation of their property, participation in sexual violence, slavery and other “inhumane acts” such as forced conversions and the destruction of cultural and religious sites.

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In addition, the group said it had identified leaders and key members of the Islamic State extremist group who were involved in the attack on three major Christian groups in the Nineveh Plain, north of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in July and August 2014. Attacks and takeovers of towns – Hamdaniyah, Karamlays and Bartella.

It has also begun gathering evidence about crimes committed against the Christian community in Mosul.

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Islamic State fighters took over Iraqi cities and declared a self-proclaimed caliphate in 2014 over swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

After three years of bloody fighting that left tens of thousands dead and cities reduced to rubble, the group was officially declared defeated in Iraq in 2017, but its sleeper cells continued to carry out attacks in different parts of the country.

The 26-page report was submitted by a United Nations investigation team to promote accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State group, also known as IS, ISIL and Daesh.

The team updated on the development and use of chemical and biological weapons against extremists, attacks on Yazidi and Sunni communities, the June 2014 mass executions of prisoners and detainees at Badush prison near Mosul, and the Tikrit investigation of crimes in and around the area.

In December 2021, UN team leader Christian Ritscher told the Security Council that Islamic State extremists had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Badush prison.

In May 2021, Ritscher’s predecessor, Karim Khan, told the committee that investigators had found “clear and convincing evidence” that Islamic State extremists committed genocide against the Yazidi minority in 2014.

He also said militant groups had successfully developed chemical weapons and used mustard gas.

The new report says Ritscher’s team found evidence of payments to the families of members of the Islamic State who deployed chemical weapons, as well as records of payments made to train senior operatives in the use of chemical weapons and devices to disperse such weapons.

The team said it was still assessing the evidence for the use of proxies.

“There is evidence that ISIL manufactured and produced chemical rockets and mortars, chemical munitions for rocket-propelled grenades, chemical warheads and improvised explosive devices,” the report said.

“Additionally, the ISIL program involved the development, testing, weaponization, and deployment of a range of agents, including aluminum phosphide, chlorine, botulism, cyanide, nicotine, ricin, and thallium sulfate.”

As for the destruction of cultural and religious sites by Islamic State militants, the team said it had broadened its investigation to include different Iraqi communities and focused on several areas in Nineveh and Mosul.

This led to an initial inventory of more than 150 Kaka’i, Shabak and Shiite Turkmen sites “suspected to have been destroyed by ISIL and members of these communities forcibly displaced, disappeared and sometimes killed,” the group said.

It also identified places of worship and sites in Tikrit that were severely damaged or destroyed by ISIL.

“Evidence obtained so far indicates that religious and cultural sites were either deliberately destroyed by ISIL or taken over and occupied by ISIL, sometimes for military purposes, which resulted in their severe damage or destruction,” it said.

“While the motives and methods employed by ISIL are still under review, it appears that explosives and heavy equipment were used to destroy many sites.”

Regarding the attack on the Yazidi community in Sinjar, the team said it had expanded the list of identified perpetrators to now include the names of 2,181 people, including 156 foreign fighters.

“An in-depth case file has been developed against 30 key persons involved,” it said.

The panel said it had expanded its investigation into ISIS crimes against the Sunni community in Anbar, citing progress in the investigation into the execution of hundreds of members of the Albu Nimr tribe between 2014 and 2016.

The UN investigation into the June 10-11, 2014 mass execution of detainees in Badush prison continued, including interviews with additional witnesses and survivors, the panel said.

This, it said, produced “new corroborating evidence that some 1,000 predominantly Shia prisoners were targeted and executed by ISIL inside the prison and at various other locations”.

The team said it also continues to investigate crimes against civilians in Tikrit and Alam in 2014 and 2015, and is gathering information on the mass killing of unarmed cadets at the Tikrit Air Force Academy in June 2014 and further evidence of personnel.

In the coming months, investigators say they plan to transition their focus from investigating to building a case and sharing information with Iraq to drive prosecution and accountability. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)



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