Islamic State militants are using hundreds of kidnapped women as gifts for fighters in Syria, according to a Thursday United Nations report obtained by Reuters.
In August alone, nearly 500 Iraqi women and girls were taken to the Tal Afar citadel in the Nineveh region of northern Iraq, where 150 of those victims were sent to Syria as either prizes for ISIL fighters or sex slaves. Most of the women and girls were Christian or members of the Yazidi religious minority.
"Women and girls are brought with price tags for the buyers to choose and negotiate the sale. The buyers were said to be mostly youth from the local communities," reads the U.N. report according to the New York Daily News.
The Islamist extremists are also killing female lawyers, doctors and members of other professions.
Over 9,000 civilians have been killed and over 17,000 have been wounded since the beginning of the year to September, according to the U.N. report. Another 1.8 million Iraqis have been displaced since ISIS and ISIL unleashed a campaign of terror to enforce a brutal form of Islamic rule in Iraq and Syria.
"The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity," said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to Reuters.
The U.N. report said IS has made a point to destroy cultural and religious centers in Iraq that go against its "takfiri" doctrine, which is used by the militants to justify the violence by declaring others as apostates, or those who forsake their religion.
The report comes as a coalition of air strikes led by the U.S. is underway against militant targets. However, the same report has expressed concern that Baghdad government forces and the coalition are not making sure they don't accidentally strike civilians.
