GENEVA
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been deploying fighters and arms in civilian houses and farms since the start of the U.S.-led coalition's air strikes, according to a United Nations panel investigating war crimes in Syria.
The report released by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria on Friday also said the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, had set up detention centers in hospitals and schools and detainees were being whipped, electrocuted and suspended by their arms from the walls or the ceiling.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the inquiry, said: "The abuses, violations and crimes committed by the so called ISIS have been deliberate and calculated."
ISIL was imposing "a rule of terror" on the areas under its control, he said.
The report, based on more than 300 first-hand witness accounts, also said ISIL was preventing the supply of humanitarian aid and reinforcing the dependence of civilians on the services it controlled.
It added: "Humanitarian agencies have been unable to reach about 600,000 people in ISIS-controlled areas in Syria since July."
Extremists 'festering'
But it also stated: "Air strikes on ISIS positions have led to some civilian casualties."
Pinheiro said a lack of political process had allowed the extremists to fester, adding sarcastically that the presence of ISIS was not a "big discovery."
"They are not falling from the sky. They have been coming with external support in the last four years ... There are already many foreigners attracted by ideology, victories and methods of the so-called ISIS," he said.
Commission member Vitit Muntarbhorn said that some of the fighters in Syria had shifted allegiances.
"Some of them have come from other groups, such as al-Nusra. There is shifting alliance factor based upon money and other things," Muntarbhorn said.
According to the report, ISIL amputated the fingers of men caught smoking and lashed others for having tattoos and not attending Friday prayers.
Girls as young as 13 years old were forced to marry ISIL fighters, it added.
www.aa.com.tr/en
