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| U.N. Reports at Least 26,000 Civilian Casualties in Iraq Conflict This Year | U.N. Reports at Least 26,000 Civilian Casualties in Iraq Conflict This Year |
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| GENEVA — The conflict in Iraq has killed and wounded at least 26,000 civilians this year, with the toll accelerating in recent weeks as American and allied warplanes conduct a campaign to try to contain Islamic State fighters in parts of northern Iraq, the United Nations reported Thursday. | GENEVA — The conflict in Iraq has killed and wounded at least 26,000 civilians this year, with the toll accelerating in recent weeks as American and allied warplanes conduct a campaign to try to contain Islamic State fighters in parts of northern Iraq, the United Nations reported Thursday. |
| The casualty count includes 9,343 people killed from January to the end of September, the United Nations said in a joint report by its mission in Iraq and its human rights office in Geneva, which emphasized that the figures were “absolute minimums.” | The casualty count includes 9,343 people killed from January to the end of September, the United Nations said in a joint report by its mission in Iraq and its human rights office in Geneva, which emphasized that the figures were “absolute minimums.” |
| More than 5,500 deaths have occurred since the offensive by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, begun in June. Among the casualties were over 2,000 people slaughtered in mass executions and others killed in attacks that the United Nations said systematically targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. The extremists’ offensive has involved ethnic cleansing, abductions, rape, and other physical and sexual violence against women and children, the United Nations’ human rights monitors said. | |
| “The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, the human rights chief, said in a statement, urging the new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. | |
| But the report said that government security forces and militias associated with them had also committed “gross violations” of international law by carrying out targeted killings and summary executions of captured Islamic State fighters and by launching airstrikes that resulted in “significant” civilian deaths and injuries. | But the report said that government security forces and militias associated with them had also committed “gross violations” of international law by carrying out targeted killings and summary executions of captured Islamic State fighters and by launching airstrikes that resulted in “significant” civilian deaths and injuries. |
| Drawing on testimony of survivors and witnesses, the agencies reported multiple cases of mass executions by Islamic extremists, including three Sunni women executed after sentencing by an Islamic State-appointed court in the city of Mosul on Sept. 5, 40 men executed on the orders of the same court on Sept. 7, and two women shot in the back of the head on Sept. 9. | |
| Gunmen from the radical group had claimed responsibility for executing 1,500 soldiers and security forces personnel at a military base captured in June, the United Nations said, reporting the execution of 42 soldiers captured south of the town of Tikrit in July and the discovery of 18 police officers whose bodies were left by the side of the road in the same area that same month. | Gunmen from the radical group had claimed responsibility for executing 1,500 soldiers and security forces personnel at a military base captured in June, the United Nations said, reporting the execution of 42 soldiers captured south of the town of Tikrit in July and the discovery of 18 police officers whose bodies were left by the side of the road in the same area that same month. |
| Witnesses had also recounted numerous mass killings of hundreds of Iraq’s Yazidi minority. As an example, the United Nations reported that in the village of Kocho on Aug. 15, Islamic State gunmen assembled all the men older than 10, drove them outside the village and shot them. | |
| Indiscriminate air raids by government forces had resulted in scores of civilian deaths and many more injuries, according to the United Nations report, which detailed airstrikes in July and August, including an attack on a hospital west of Mosul that killed 10 civilians. | Indiscriminate air raids by government forces had resulted in scores of civilian deaths and many more injuries, according to the United Nations report, which detailed airstrikes in July and August, including an attack on a hospital west of Mosul that killed 10 civilians. |