UN accuses Islamic State and Syria government of war crimes

World Today

The U.N. said the Islamic State and the government of Syria are committing war crimes. The U.N.’s latest report cited extensive violence by each side. CCTV America’s Liling Tan reports.

This report paints a brutal and bloody picture of the Syrian conflict, and accuses both the government of Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State militants of continuous and extreme acts of violence.

It says that government forces have killed hundreds of men, women and children between January and July by firing missiles and barrel bombs into civilian areas and deliberately targeting these sites in some cases, which constitute massacres. Eight incidents in April may have involved the use of chemical agents, likely chlorine.

U.N. investigators also stated that government forces were responsible for the systematic torture and deaths of detainees in prisons, based on analysis of more than 25,000 photographs.

The report also states that the Islamic State has been forcibly displacing Kurdish communities in northern Syria. And they’ve been systematically targeting journalists and media workers.

This is the eight report from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria and it is based on 480 interviews and vast amounts of material chronicling the conflict. It doesn’t just intend to garner action from the international community, such as the security council, but also to build cases that can be taken to the International Criminal Court.

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