The outbreak of violence in Iraq carried out by Sunni rebel groups has killed over 1,000 people in the month of June, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Between June 5 and 22, at least 1,075 people were killed as the insurgency group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) carried out hostile takeovers of several provinces, the Iraq-based U.N. human rights team told the Associated Press. Most of the victims, 757, were civilians.
"This figure- which should be viewed very much as minimum- includes a number of verified summary executions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, police and soldiers who were hors (de) combat," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. human rights office, told the AP using the French word for soldiers who have chosen to no longer fight.
The government-led Shiite troops have been unable to stop the Sunni militants.
Another 599 people were injured during the rampage throughout the Diyala, Salah al-Din and Nineveh provinces. Violence in Baghdad and other areas killed 318 people and injured 590, the human rights team said. Most of the Baghdad victims were killed by bombs detonated inside vehicles.
Kidnappings and murders of people from minority groups including Turkomans, Shabak, Christians and Yezidis are also being carried out, Colville told Reuters.
Officials are in the process of confirming the executions and war crimes.
"The evidence will be gathered just as it has been gathered for several years now in Syria against whoever is committing crimes, and hopefully one day there will be some accountability, but with groups like ISIS/ISIL obviously it's particularly difficult," Colville said according to Reuters.
However, the human rights team has confirmed that summary executions of prisoners, meaning they were done without a trial, were carried out by Iraqi troops as they withdrew from the rebel-overrun city of Mosul.
"In this case, grenades were reportedly thrown into rooms filled with detainees, killing at least ten and injuring another 14," Colville said, Reuters reported.
