Updated 02:46 a.m. Moscow time.
MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - The United Nations consider the actions of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization to be attempted genocide, UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights Ivan Simonovic stated.
"Facts are indicating that actions against Yazidis may amount to attempted genocide," Simonovic told Reuters on Tuesday.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
The Islamists' radical group's has already forced tens of thousands of Christians, Shias and Yazidis to flee their homes.
To impede the military advancement of the group, the United States launched airstrikes against the jihadists' positions in Iraq and Syria in mid-September, with some other countries such as France and the United Kingdom joining later to form an airstrike coalition to quash the militants.
