“Daesh’s reign of terror has spared no one, inflicting untold suffering on unarmed residents whose only guilt is that they lived in the areas under ISIL’s control. Their evil acts did not stop at killing and terrorising residents, as they wantonly destroyed cultural and religious monuments, including the city’s iconic leaning minaret Al-Hadba, in total disregard of history and Islam, the religion this terrorist organisation falsely claimed to represent.”
The report called on the international community, including the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council, to take action to ensure that those responsible for international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are held accountable.
At least 2,521 civilians were killed during the military operation, mostly as a result of ISIL attacks, the report found, including 741 people who were executed. Another 1,673 were wounded.
Additionally, as of 26 October 2017, the Civil Defence Corps reported that they had recovered the remains of 1,642 civilians from underneath rubble in Mosul.
Large numbers of the city’s civilian population were forced to flee as a result of the military operations. As of 11 July, 137,339 families (824,034 individuals) were displaced.
The report noted that since 2014, at least 74 mass graves had been discovered in areas previously held by ISIL in Iraq. The number of bodies contained in these locations varied greatly, from a few bodies to possibly thousands. The report called on the Government of Iraq to ensure the protection of mass graves, and for due care to be taken to preserve evidence of crimes committed to assist in identifying the perpetrators.
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