A new report from the United Nations suggests an estimated 3,500 people - mostly women and children – are being held as slaves within territories currently occupied by the Islamic State group.
The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq and the U.N. human rights office report found that the terrorist group impose their regime with punishment of gruesome public executions. Methods include beheadings, burning people alive and throwing victims from buildings.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner, said: “Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq." The violence was described as "staggering."
Most of the captives are said to be of Yazidi origin – an Iraqi religious minority, of predominantly Kurdish descent – who have been dubbed by the IS group as "devil worshippers."
The report is based largely on interviews with survivors or people who have escaped ISIS's stronghold having witnessed the group's human rights violations first hand.
Other findings estimated over 18,000 civilians have been killed between the 1st of January 2014 and the 31st of October 2015 in the area – although it is likely that figures are, in reality, much higher. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
The findings of the report clearly demonstrate why so many Syrian and Iraqi refugees flee the Islamic State group, usually in the direction of Europe. "This is the horror they face in their homelands," stated Al Hussein.
You can read the testimonies of women and girls who have fled the imposed slavery of Islamic State group here and here.
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