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UN Team to Launch Probe Into ISIS Crimes in Iraq Early 2019

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad has called for Islamic State fighters to face trial for their crimes in Iraq | AFP
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad has called for Islamic State fighters to face trial for their crimes in Iraq | AFP
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UN Team to Launch Probe Into ISIS Crimes in Iraq Early 2019

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad has called for Islamic State fighters to face trial for their crimes in Iraq | AFP
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad has called for Islamic State fighters to face trial for their crimes in Iraq | AFP

A UN team authorized over a year ago to investigate the massacre of the Yazidi minority and other atrocities by terrorists in Iraq will finally begin work early next year, the head of the investigation said Tuesday.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in September 2017 to bring those responsible for ISIS group war crimes to justice -- a cause championed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

The team, led by British lawyer Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, was deployed to Baghdad in October, but has since focused on administrative and technical details to lay the groundwork for the probe.

"The investigative team now looks forward to continuing preparations in Iraq with a view to commencing investigative activities in early 2019," Ahmad Khan told the council during his first report.

He told the council that "the realization of our investigative activities is dependent on securing the cooperation, support and trust of all elements of Iraqi society."

The United Nations has described the massacre of the Yazidis by ISIS militants as possible genocide and UN rights investigators have documented horrific accounts of abuse suffered by women and girls.

Nadia Murad is among thousands of Yazidi women who were taken hostage and held as sex slaves when ISIS fighters swept into Iraq's Sinjar region in August 2014.

The investigators will gather evidence on war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide for use in Iraqi courts that will hold trials for IS militants, according to the UN resolution.

More than 200 mass graves containing up to 12,000 bodies have been recently discovered in Iraq, providing evidence of war crimes by ISIS.

The United States announced it will provide $2 million to support the work of the investigative team, known as UNITAD, the UN investigative team to promote accountability for crimes committed by Daesh, an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

After being awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Murad said she wanted ISIS jihadists to face trial in a courtroom.

"For me, justice doesn't mean killing all of the Daesh members who committed these crimes against us," she said in October.

"Justice for me is taking Daesh members to a court of law and seeing them in court admitting to the crimes they committed against Yazidis and being punished for those crimes specifically," she said in October.

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Arab World

EU Urged to 'Act Now' on West Bank Settlement Project

The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya (foreground) and the Israeli settlement of Shilo (background), north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are pictured on May 6, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya (foreground) and the Israeli settlement of Shilo (background), north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are pictured on May 6, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
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EU Urged to 'Act Now' on West Bank Settlement Project

The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya (foreground) and the Israeli settlement of Shilo (background), north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are pictured on May 6, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya (foreground) and the Israeli settlement of Shilo (background), north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are pictured on May 6, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

More than 400 former diplomats, ministers, and senior officials on Wednesday urged the European Union to "act now" against Israel's "illegal" settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The open letter comes as Israel intends to move forward with E1, a new construction project covering around 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles) with some 3,400 housing units in the occupied West Bank.

The move would further separate east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel and predominantly inhabited by Palestinians, from the West Bank.

"The EU and its member states, together with partners, must take immediate action to deter Israel from further advancing its illegal annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank," said the letter signed by more than 440 figures, including former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt.

The signatories called for targeted sanctions, such as visa bans and business restrictions, on "all those engaged in illegal settlement activity", calling for measures against those promoting or implementing the E1 scheme.

The Israeli government plans to publish an initial tender on June 1 for the construction of housing for up to 15,000 "illegal settlers", AFP quoted the letter as saying, urging the EU and its member states to "act now".

The plan has been condemned by international leaders, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's spokesman saying it would pose an "existential threat" to a contiguous Palestinian state.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.

In 2025, the expansion of Israeli settlements reached its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking data, according to a UN report.

There has been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Iran war on February 28, Palestinian officials and the United Nations have said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Arab World

Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Targets across Lebanon

An Israeli soldier gestures next to a tank, on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
An Israeli soldier gestures next to a tank, on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
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Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Targets across Lebanon

An Israeli soldier gestures next to a tank, on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
An Israeli soldier gestures next to a tank, on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem

Israel's army said Wednesday it had begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of Lebanon, despite a truce with the neighboring country intended to halt fighting with the Iran-backed militant group. 

"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in several areas in Lebanon," a military statement said. 

It came shortly after the army reported "several incidents" during which drones exploded near Israeli soldiers operating in Lebanon's south.  

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley killed four people, with local media reporting the attack took place before the Israeli army issued a warning to evacuate the area along with 11 other towns. 

"An Israeli enemy raid on the town of Zellaya in West Bekaa resulted in four martyrs, including two women and an elderly man," the ministry said. 

Lebanese state media said the attack struck the house of the town's mayor, killing him and three members of his family. 

 

Arab World

US Wants 'Concrete Actions' on Iran from Next Iraqi PM

Members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary group Kataeb Hezbollah mourn a comrade who was killed in a strike in Basra, during the funeral in Baghdad on April 8, 2026. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/File
Members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary group Kataeb Hezbollah mourn a comrade who was killed in a strike in Basra, during the funeral in Baghdad on April 8, 2026. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/File
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US Wants 'Concrete Actions' on Iran from Next Iraqi PM

Members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary group Kataeb Hezbollah mourn a comrade who was killed in a strike in Basra, during the funeral in Baghdad on April 8, 2026. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/File
Members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary group Kataeb Hezbollah mourn a comrade who was killed in a strike in Basra, during the funeral in Baghdad on April 8, 2026. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/File

The United States is looking for "concrete actions" by Iraq's next prime minister to distance the state from pro-Iran armed groups before resuming financial shipments and security aid, a senior official said Tuesday.

Iraq's ruling coalition has put forward Ali al-Zaidi as the next leader and he quickly received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump, who had threatened to end all US support if former frontrunner Nouri al-Maliki took office.

But a senior US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Zaidi must address the "blurry line" between pro-Iran armed groups in the Shia-majority country and the state, AFP said.

Washington suspended cash payments for oil revenue, which have been handled from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in an arrangement dating to the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, as well as security assistance over a spate of attacks on US interests.

Resuming full support "would start with expelling terrorist militias from any state institution, cutting off their support from the Iraqi budget (and) denying salary payments to these militia fighters," the official said.

"Those are the type of concrete actions that would give us confidence and say that there's a new mindset."

The official said US facilities in Iraq suffered more than 600 attacks after February 28, when the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran.

The attacks have come to a standstill since a shaky April 8 ceasefire between the United States and Iran, with the exception of Iranian strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"I'm not underestimating the severity of the challenge or what it would take to disentangle these relationships. It could start with a clear and unambiguous statement of policy that the terrorist militias are not part of the Iraqi state," the official said.

"Certain elements of the Iraqi state have continued to provide political, financial and operational cover for these very terrorist militias," he added.

The United States piled pressure on Iraq after it appeared that Maliki would be the next prime minister. During his previous stint in office, relations deteriorated with Washington over accusations of being too close to Iran's Shia clerical government and fanning sectarian flames.

Attacks by armed groups in Iraq have struck the US embassy in Baghdad, its diplomatic and logistics facility at the capital's airport and oil fields operated by foreign companies.