IS targeting educated women in new wave of horror: UN

Geneva: The UN on Tuesday warned educated women, particularly those who have run for elections, that they risk executions, cruel and inhuman punishments from the Sharia courts established by the Islamic State militants in areas controlled by them.

In the first two weeks of 2015 three women lawyers were executed by Islamic group. Last week 14 men from the Jumaili Sunni Arab tribe were killed in Tikrit in front of a large crowd for refusing allegiance to the Islamic group.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, said the courts "have been meting out cruel and inhuman punishments to men, women and children accused of violating the group's extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law or for suspected disloyalty".

Shamdasani said "educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk."

The IS also posted pictures last week of two men who were "crucified" for alleged banditry and two men were thrown off a building after being accused of homosexuality.

All the punishments follow after "judgements" from a sharia court.

"Executions are happening for a variety of reasons and to all kinds of people across the board. Any kind of disobedience or lack of allegiance to its twisted philosophy leads to execution," said Shamdasani.

Hostage taking is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, she said, referring to the four Japanese hostages taken by IS.

"We are continuing to document human rights abuses and violations taking place in Iraq and will present a report to the Human Rights Council in March," OHCHR said.

The IS controls large swaths of territories in northern and western Iraq including important town like Tikrit, Mosul, Falluja and aims to establish a caliphate that straddles Iraq and Syria ruled by a single political and religious leader according Sharia or the Islamic Law.

The UN has called the Syrian conflict the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II.