Islamic State group conducts mass killings, "ethnic cleansing," Amnesty International says

BAGHDAD -- An international rights group accused the extremist Islamic State group yesterday of systematic "ethnic cleansing" in northern Iraq targeting indigenous religious minorities, as well as conducting mass killings of men and abducting women.

Amnesty International's report was issued hours before Islamic State posted video showing its apparent beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

The report said the extremists have abducted "hundreds, if not thousands" of women and girls of the Yazidi faith and have killed "hundreds" of Yazidi men and boys. In at least one incident, the report said the militants rounded up their victims on trucks, took them to the edge of their village and shot them.

The report adds to a growing body of evidence outlining the scope and extent of the Islamic State group's atrocities since it began its sweep from Syria across neighboring Iraq in June. The group has since seized much of northern and western Iraq.

On Monday, the UN's top human rights body approved a request by Iraq to open an investigation into suspected crimes committed by the Islamic State group against civilians. Its aim would be to provide the Human Rights Council with evidence on atrocities committed in Iraq, which could be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution.

Amnesty detailed how the advance of Islamic State group fighters expelled an estimated 830,000 people -- mostly Shia and those belonging to tiny religious minorities that barely exist outside of Iraq. They include Aramaic-speaking Christians, Yazidis, a faith that traces to ancient Mesopotamia; the Shabak, an offshoot of Islam; and Mandeans, a gnostic faith.

Most fled as extremists neared their communities, fearing they'd be killed or forcibly converted to the group's hard-line version of Islam.

"Minorities in Iraq have been targeted at different points in the past, but the Islamic State [group] has managed, in the space of a few weeks, to completely wipe off of the map of Iraq, the religious and ethnic minorities from the area under their control," said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

The Yazidis, in particular, were harshly targeted as Islamic State militants overran their ancestral lands last month.

It appears that some teenage girls were taken in groups to the homes of Islamic State fighters, the report said. Amnesty noted allegations that some abducted women were raped or forced to marry fighters.