UN accuses Islamic State, Syrian government of committing war crimes

Islamic State (IS) forces in northern Syria are waging a campaign to instil fear, carrying out amputations, public executions and whippings, UN investigators said yesterday.

Syria's government and IS insurgents are both committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in their war against each other, the investigators said.

Government forces had dropped barrel bombs on civilian areas, including some believed to contain the chemical agent chlorine in eight incidents in April, and had committed other war crimes that should be prosecuted, the UN officials said in a 45-page report issued in Geneva.

"Executions in public spaces have become a common spectacle on Fridays in al Raqqa and [IS]-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate [province]," the report said. "Children have been present at the executions, which take the form of beheading or shooting in the head at close range ... Bodies are placed on public display, often on crucifixes, for up to three days, serving as a warning to local residents."

Deaths in custody in Syrian jails were on the rise and forensic analysis of 26,948 photographs, allegedly taken between 2011 and 2013 in government detention centres, proved "longstanding findings of systematic torture and deaths of detainees", the report said.

The UN report is based on 480 interviews and documentary evidence gathered by a team building a criminal prosecution case.