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U.N. Panel: Syrian Gov’t, Islamic State Committing War Crimes

HeadlineAug 28, 2014

A new United Nations probe is accusing both the Syrian government and Islamic State insurgents of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in their fight against the other. Paulo Pinheiro, chair of a U.N. panel on the civil war in Syria, said the Islamic State is recruiting young children for its bloody campaign.

Paulo Pinheiro: “Among the most disturbing findings in this report are accounts of large training camps, where children, mostly boys, from the age of 14 are recruited and trained to fight in the ranks of ISIS along with adults. To what concerns ISIS, the commission, as you can read in the report, indicates that members of ISIS have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Aleppo and al-Raqqa governorates, including acts of torture, murder, enforced disappearances and forcible displacement.”

The U.N. probe also faults the Syrian government for continued killings, torture and other war crimes, including multiple barrel bombings laced with chlorine gas since April.

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