UN votes to help Iraq collect evidence against Islamic State

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. investigators can help Iraq collect evidence to build potential war crimes cases against Islamic State extremists, the Security Council decided Thursday.

The council unanimously passed a resolution that asks the U.N. to establish an investigative team to help Iraq preserve evidence "that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide" committed by the Islamic State group. Iraq and Britain spearheaded the measure.

"There can never be adequate recompense" for those who have had to endure the group's brutality, said Alastair Burt, the British minister of state for the Middle East.

"This resolution means that the international community is united in our belief that there should at least be accountability for those who perpetrated such wanton acts," he added, pledging 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) to the investigative effort.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in a letter last month that his country wants to "make use of international expertise" to bring to justice the IS group, also known as ISIL or Daesh.

"The crimes committed by the terrorist organization ISIL against civilians and its destruction of infrastructure and antiquities in Iraq are crimes against humanity," al-Jaafari wrote.

British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney also championed the measure. She represents members of Iraq's Yazidi community who were raped and kidnapped by Islamic State militants, and she said earlier this year that nations must not let the extremist group "get away with genocide."

"Yazidis and other ISIS victims want justice in a court of law, and they deserve nothing less," said the attorney, who is married to actor George Clooney.

U.N. investigators will be able to help identify victims and perpetrators and "provide an indispensable record of the scope and scale" of IS atrocities, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said, calling the resolution "a landmark."