New evidence of 'ethnic cleansing' by IS in Iraq
Amnesty International says it has evidence of a targeted campaign against minority groups in Iraq by the Islamic State (IS).
In a report released today, the human rights group outlines evidence of "ethnic cleansing on an historic scale".
The militant Islamist group that has a declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and northern Iraq has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities".
More than 830,000 people have been forced from their homes in northern Iraq since June 10 and thousands killed or abducted.
Although the horrors in northern Iraq have been well documented, there have been a number of controversies about the verifiability of various accounts. Amnesty now says it has proof of mass-killings in the Sinjar region.
Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shi'a, Shabak Shi'a, Yazidis, Kakai and Sabean Mandaeans have lived in the Nineveh province for centuries. Much of this land is now under IS control, following widespread demands that communities must convert, flee or die.
The report said that hundreds, possibly thousands, of Yazidis from Sinjar – mostly women and children – were abducted as they fled in early August, with little known of their fate since.
IS attacked Kocho, a village in the Singar region, on August 15, possibly killing hundreds, the report said. The survivors told Amnesty that the militants had rounded up the community, who were mostly Yazidi, separated the men and carried them away in vehicles to be shot.
From these interviews it is known that 90 men were shot, but another 400 men are missing from the same attack, and their families fear they faced the same treatment.
The information in the report was gathered from visits to the region, including to IS-captured areas, and interviews with hundreds of witnesses, survivors and victims, as well as humanitarian organisations.
On Monday, joint Iraqi and Kurdish forces took control of Amerli, after a two-month siege from IS.
The UN also announced yesterday that it would send a team to investigate the "acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale".
