More than 1000 people killed in Iraq, says UN human rights teamListen /
At least 1,075 people have been killed and 1,189 have been injured in Iraq since early June. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, the UN human rights team in the country, says that at least 757 civilians died in Nineveh, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces between the 5th and the 22nd of June.
Rupert Colville is the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
"This figure – which should be viewed very much as a minimum – includes a number of verified summary executions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, police, and soldiers who were hors combat. At least another 318 people were killed and a further 590 injured during the same period in Baghdad and areas in the south." (19″)
The human rights office says that abductions continue to be reported in northern provinces and in Baghdad, including a number of cases of foreigners being abducted. Some of those who had been abducted have later been found dead. It's believed that summary executions continue to take place.
The group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, has broadcast dozens of videos showing cruel treatment, beheadings and shootings of soldiers who are no longer fighting, police officers and people apparently targeted because of their religion or ethnicity.
Meanwhile, at least two summary executions of prisoners by the Iraqi army have been reported – one, at the al-Qalaa police station in Tal Afar, allegedly involved the killing of 31 detainees, although this still has to be verified.
Nicki Chadwick, United Nations, Geneva.