NEW YORK

The UN on Tuesday said violence suffered by civilians in Iraq remains "staggering”.

At least 18,802 civilians were killed and another 36,245 were wounded between the beginning of 2014 and the end of last October.

Approximately 3.2 million people, including more than 1 million school-aged children, were internally displaced during the same period, according to the joint report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report accused Daesh of committing systematic and widespread violence and human rights abuses.

It said these acts "may, in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide".

The militant group, which captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, "continues to target members of different ethnic and religious communities, systematically persecuting these groups and subjecting them to a range of abuses and violations," the report said.

"Women and children remain particularly vulnerable, with ongoing reports of sexual violence, including sexual slavery, and the forcible recruitment and use of children in hostilities."

The report also documented alleged abuses of international law by Iraqi security forces, militiamen and Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

"Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq," said UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein. "The figures capture those who were killed or maimed by overt violence, but countless others have died from the lack of access to basic food, water or medical care."

Zeid also urged the UN Security Council to closely follow the situation to ensure "that perpetrators of gross violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable".