Advertisement

Kerry: Islamic State committing genocide in Syria, Iraq

By Ed Adamczyk
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry referred to Islamic State actions against Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq as genocide Thursday. Pool Photo by Chip Somodevilla/UPI
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry referred to Islamic State actions against Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq as genocide Thursday. Pool Photo by Chip Somodevilla/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Secretary of State John Kerry called the Islamic State's assault in Syria and Iraq "genocide" on Thursday.

"Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions," Kerry said at the State Department, referring to IS by another common name in reference to IS slaughter of Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims.

Advertisement

It is only the second time the word "genocide" has been used by the U.S. government in recent years to describe massacres; Secretary of State Colin Powell used "genocide" in 2004 to describe the atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region.

Kerry was pressured to declare that IS is committing genocide after a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last month where some members demanded that he explain why the State Department had not yet branded the massacre of Christians in the Middle East as such.

Earlier this week, the House, in a unanimous vote of 393-0, adopted a resolution calling IS actions genocide. Congressional Republicans have called on President Barack Obama to likewise make a declaration of genocide.

Advertisement

Accompanying such a statement, some feel, is an obligation to take action to stop the genocide, although the United States is already involved in airstrikes against IS.

"Determining these kinds of legal definitions, such as genocide and crimes against humanity, requires a very detailed, rigorous legal analysis," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday.

Designating IS actions as genocide could prompt a referral by the United States to the United Nations Security Council to establish a tribunal specifically for crimes committed by IS in Iraq and Syria.

Latest Headlines