UN Details War Crimes in Syria

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — In ISIS controlled territory, Friday is the day for public beheadings and amputations for people who violate its strict Islamic rule, and whippings for women if their clothing offends ISIS’ sense of propriety.

In some areas under ISIS rule, children as young as 10 are being recruited and trained as fighters for the group.

The grim picture of life under the Islamic group was described by a United Nations report that accused the group as well as other fighters in Syria of carrying out war crimes. While the Syrian regime and other militias were also suspected of violations, the U.N. report singled out ISIS for its alarming and at times ghoulish policies.

“In areas of Syria under ISIS control, particularly in the north and northeast of the country, Fridays are regularly marked by executions, amputations and lashings in public squares,” the report said.

The punishments are carried out in a manner to maximize the psychological impact.

“Civilians, including children, are urged to watch. Bodies of those killed are placed on display for several days, terrorizing the local population,” according to the U.N. report.

Women and children are particularly vulnerable to ISIS enforcers.

“Women have been lashed for not abiding by ISIS’s dress code. In Ar-Raqqah, children as young as 10 are being recruited and trained at ISIS camps,” the report states. It also found that journalists and other media workers are targeted.

“Members of ISIS have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity … including acts of torture, murder, enforced disappearances and forcible displacement,” the report states.

ISIS has galvanized international opposition with its brutal threats to Kurds, Christians and Yazidis, ordering them to convert or be killed, and the U.N. said it “poses a clear and present danger to civilians, and particularly minorities, under its control in Syria and in the region.”

The report was based on 480 interviews as well as documentary material. Combining the brutality of ISIS with that of Syrian government and other militias in the Syrian civil war, the U.N. report said it “chronicles the unimaginable brutality and human cost of the Syrian conflict.”

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