IS 'may have committed genocide': UN

The Islamic State may have committed genocide against the Yazidi minority, the UN says.

Iraqi soldiers patrol part of massive defensive trench built to protect Karbala from possible attacks by Islamic State fighters (EPA/ALAA AL-SHEMAREE)

Islamic State jihadists may have committed genocide in trying to wipe out the Yazidi minority in Iraq, a UN report says.

The Islamic State (IS) group "may have committed all three of the most serious international crimes - namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide," the United Nations human rights office said in a statement.

The agency published a horrifying report detailing a litany of crimes and atrocities committed by the extremists, including killings, torture, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers.

All of these crimes, it said, are violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and some may amount to "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes".