(VOVWorld) – Nearly 19.000 Iraqi civilians were killed and approximately 3 million people displaced by ‘staggering’ violence in a 22-month period as Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State group, according to a UN report released Tuesday.
 |
| The UN says the actual figures for those killed could be much higher than the report suggests. (Photo: Deutsche Welle) |
The report, documenting between January 2014 through October 2015, said about half of the deaths occurred in Baghdad. The actual civilian death toll may be considerably higher as countless others have died from a lack of food, water or medical care.
The UN says systematic and widespread violence committed by the so-called IS may “amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide”.
Some 3,500 people, mainly women and children largely from the Yazidi minority, are still being held as slaves.