UN vows action against brutal Islamic State fighters over genocide and war crimes

Following interviews with more than 100 alleged victims and witnesses, the UN’s human rights office is today urging its security council to refer the situation to the ICC – the world’s top war crimes court where Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi was being tried before his death in 2011.

The interviews are part of a report that also says Iraqi government forces and affiliated militias “may have committed some war crimes” while battling the terror group.

The UN Human Rights Council launched its inquiry in September after the jihadists – also known as ISIS or ISIL – seized large swathes of northern Iraq.

The report said the council had found "information that points to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes", and that the UN Security Council should "consider referring the situation in Iraq to the International Criminal Court".

There was a "manifest pattern of attacks" by Islamic State on Yazidis as well as Christians and other minorities as it laid siege to towns and villages in Iraq.

The UN investigators also cited allegations that militants had used chlorine gas, a prohibited chemical weapon, against Iraqi soldiers in the western province of Anbar in September.

Captured women and children were treated as "spoils of war", and often subjected to rape or sexual slavery, it said.

The report said that the terrorist's Islamic sharia courts in Mosul had also meted out cruel punishments including stoning and amputation.

"Thirteen teenage boys were sentenced to death for watching a football match," it said.

The UN investigators said it was "widely alleged" that Iraqi government forces had used barrel bombs, an indiscriminate weapon banned by international law, but this required further investigation.

The banned explosives have also alleged to have been used by Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad during his country's civil war.