UN rights chief accuses IS of ‘mass executions’

Reuters

Geneva

The UN yesterday condemned “appalling, widespread” crimes by Islamic State (IS) forces in Iraq, including mass executions of prisoners that could amount to war crimes.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned “grave, horrific human rights violations” being committed by Islamic State, a group which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria to the alarm of the Baghdad government and its allies in the West.

Up to 670 prisoners from Badush prison in the city of Mosul were killed by Islamic State on June 10, Pillay said in a statement quoting survivors and witnesses to the “massacre” as telling UN human rights investigators.

“Such cold-blooded, systematic and intentional killings of civilians, after singling them out for their religious affiliation, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Pillay said.

Islamic State loaded 1,000 to 1,500 prisoners from the jail on to trucks and took them for screening, Pillay said. Sunni inmates were then separated and removed.

“IS gunmen then yelled insults at the remaining prisoners, lined them up in four rows, ordered them to kneel and opened fire,” she said.

Islamic State fighters have made gains against Kurdish forces in the north in recent weeks, seizing towns, oilfields and Iraq’s largest dam. Backed by US air power, Kurdish forces later took back control of the Mosul dam.

An Islamic State video last week depicting the beheading of American journalist James Foley prompted revulsion in the West and calls for tougher action against the group, including taking the fight to them in Syria as well as Iraq.

While the White House indicated last week that it was considering taking on Islamic State in Syria, Washington has also supported the insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad and there has been no sign of any shift in US policy towards him.

Meanwhile, incoming Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Iraq has called talks on forming a new government “constructive”.

He predicted a “clear vision” on a unified administration would emerge within the next two days, Iraqi state television reported yesterday.

Abadi is tasked with forming a power-sharing government that can tackle deepening sectarian violence and counter Islamic State.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomb attack in a Shia mosque yesterday  killed at least nine people and wounded 21, police said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying in a statement that it was to avenge an attack on Friday when Shia militiamen opened fire in a Sunni mosque in Diyala province north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 68 people.