A member loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waves an ISIL flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer 
 
 GENEVA (Reuters) - An estimated 3,500 people, mainly women and children, are believed to be held as slaves in Iraq by Islamic State militants who impose a harsh rule marked by gruesome public executions, the United Nations said on Tuesday. 
 
 The militant group, which also controls large parts of neighboring Syria, has committed widespread abuses that may "in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide," the report said. 
 
 The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq and the U.N. human rights office estimated that 3,500 people were "currently being held in slavery by ISIL". 
 
 "Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yezidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities," said the joint report issued in Geneva. 
 
 The report detailed executions by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings. 
 
 It said the United Nations had information about the murder of child soldiers and had verified reports suggesting between 800 and 900 children in Mosul had been abducted for military and religious training. 
 
 "Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq," U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement. 
 
 "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." 
 
 He added that the report laid bare the "horror" that Iraqi refugees were attempting to escape when they fled to Europe and other regions. 
 
 (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens) ||||| BAGHDAD -- A U.N. report released Tuesday says at least 18,802 civilians in Iraq were killed and another 36,245 wounded between Jan. 1, 2014 and Oct. 31, 2015. 
 
 The reports calls the civilian death toll "staggering" and details killings by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) including by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off of buildings. 
 
 The report also said ISIS is believed to currently be holding approximately 3,500 people captive as slaves. 
 
 "Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yezidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities," said the report, issued jointly by the U.N.'s Assistance Mission for Iraq and the global body's human rights office. 
 
 It said the crimes committed by ISIS may "in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide." 
 
 ISIS swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014 plunging the country into its worst political and security crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. 
 
 "That civilians are caught in the crosshairs of ISIS is not new, but the U.N. human rights agency report released Tuesday says that the staggering number of civilians who died in Iraq in the past two years were killed by gunfire, beheading, bulldozing, and by being burnt alive and thrown off buildings by ISIS -- a grim reality check on the increase in violence since U.S. troops withdrew four years ago," CBS News' Pamela Falk reported from the U.N. "U.N. officials fear that the increase in ISIS forces in Iraq will undermine the peace efforts in neighboring Syria and that the fight against ISIS in both countries is now an urgent humanitarian crisis." 
 
 "The U.N. report says that despite the steady losses to pro-government forces, ISIS continues to kill, maim and displace Iraqi civilians and that mass graves have been found across the country. It also calls on the international community and the Security Council to provide support to the government of Iraq for security and humanitarian needs. " ||||| The ISIS terror group has conscripted approximately 3,500 Iraqis into slavery from the start of 2014 until Oct. 31 of last year, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday. 
 
 The report said that most of that number was comprised of women and children from the Yazidi religious minority captured in the summer of 2014 and forced into sexual slavery. 
 
 It said another 800 to 900 children were abducted from Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, for religious and military training. It also said a number of ISIS child soldiers were killed by the extremists when they tried to flee fighting in the western Anbar province. 
 
 The report called the civilian death toll "staggering", with at least at least 18,802 Iraqis killed and another 36,245 wounded. 
 
 It also detailed the various methods ISIS has employed to kill its enemies, including public beheadings, running people over with bulldozers, burning them alive and throwing them off buildings. 
 
 
 
 Such acts are "systematic and widespread ... abuses of international human rights law and humanitarian law," the report said. "These acts may, in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide." 
 
 
 
 Iraqi forces have advanced against ISIS on a number of fronts in recent months and driven them out of the western city of Ramadi. 
 
 
 
 But U.N. envoy Jan Kubis said in a statement that "despite their steady losses to pro-government forces, the scourge of ISIS continues to kill, maim and displace Iraqi civilians in the thousands and to cause untold suffering." 
 
 
 
 U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said the civilian death toll may be considerably higher. 
 
 
 
 "Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq," he said in a statement. 
 
 
 
 ISIS swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014 and still controls much of Iraq and neighboring Syria. It has set up a self-styled caliphate in the territories under its control, which it governs with a harsh and violent interpretation of Islamic law. 
 
 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 

– The United Nations released some disturbing numbers Tuesday related to ISIS activity in Iraq, noting that its actions may "amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide," CBS News reports. In the period from Jan. 1, 2014, to Oct. 31, 2015, more than 18,800 civilians were killed by the militant group, and nearly 36,250 were wounded. And the death toll, which the UN calls "staggering," was brought about via beheadings, shootings, burning victims alive, throwing them off buildings, and even bulldozing. But there are others suffering a different horrible fate: Per the report by the UN's Assistance Mission for Iraq and its human rights division, about 3,500 Iraqis are being held as slaves. "Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yezidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities," the report reads. The report notes that verified information suggests between 800 and 900 Iraqi children in Mosul alone had been snatched for religious indoctrination and to be incorporated into ISIS' military ranks, Business Insider reports. Some of those child soldiers were murdered when they tried to run from fighting in Anbar province, Fox News notes. Others in Iraq who haven't been targeted through outright violence have perished from hunger, thirst, or lack of medical care. "Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq," the UN's human rights chief said in a statement, per Business Insider. (An ISIS fatwa last year instructed members to "be kind" to their sex slaves.)