ISIL made headlines around the world in 2014, when its fighters pushed out Iraqi soldiers and took control of cities like Mosul and Sinjar.
And in what became known as the Sinjar massacre, thousands of Yazidi men, women and children were killed. In response to ISIL’s rapid territorial gains, the United States and its allies formed a coalition to fight the armed group.
They launched air strikes on ISIL hideouts, its fighters and convoys. In October last year, a US military operation in northwest Syria resulted in the death of ISIL’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In 2018, the United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, announced the appointment of a special adviser to support efforts to investigate ISIL’s crimes. As the head of the UN investigative team, the special adviser’s mandate is to collect, preserve and store evidence.
But, how are the investigations conducted? And will they bring justice to the countless victims in Iraq and Syria?
The UN special adviser, Karim Khan, talks to al Jazeera about his efforts to investigate ISIL’s crimes.
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Yazidis, Shabakis, Armenians, Mandaeans, Circassians, Sabians and Kawliya. Around 99% of the country’s 38 million citizens are Muslims, with small minorities of Christians, Yarsans, Yezidis and Mandeans also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish.
Iraq has a coastline measuring 58 km (36 miles) on the northern Persian Gulf and encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation.
Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 19 governorates, four of which make up the autonomous Kurdistan Region. Disputes over the sovereignty of Kurdistan Region continue.
Iraq is a founding member of the UN as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF.
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security.
At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; with the addition of South Sudan in 2011, membership is now 193, representing almost all of the world’s sovereign states.
The United States is a country also known as the United States of America, USA, US or just America. There are fifty states in the union, which is a federal republic ruled by a representative democracy. Nearly ten million square kilometres are inhabited by over 300 million people. The majority of Americans speak English.
