BAGHDAD: The UN on Monday accused militants in Iraq of "ethnic and religious cleansing" as the most senior US military officer warned they will soon threaten America and Europe.
As condemnation of the Islamic State (IS) militants group mounted, Syria a pariah over its bloody crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's rule said it was ready to work with the global community against "terrorism."
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said abuses by IS and affiliated groups in Iraq against non-Arab ethnic groups and involved targeted killings, forced conversions, abductions, trafficking, and destruction of holy and cultural sites.
"They are systematically targeting men, women and children based on their ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliation and are ruthlessly carrying out widespread ethnic and religious cleansing in the areas under their control," Pillay said. "Such persecution would amount to crimes against humanity," she added, in a statement.
Iraq is struggling to regain huge tracts of the country after the militants led a lightning militant offensive, seizing second city Mosul in June and sweeping through the country's Sunni heartland, as security forces fled.
The IS militants have also taken control of swathes of neighbouring Syria contiguous to the land seized in Iraq, declaring an Islamic "caliphate" straddling both countries.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes that the threat posed by the group will "soon" expand to both the United States and Europe, his spokesman said on Monday.
"He (Dempsey) believes that (IS) must be pressured both in Iraq and in Syria," Colonel Ed Thomas added.
Syria, locked in a civil war with various rebel groups including IS since March 2011, said Monday for the first time that it will work with the international community, including the United States, to tackle the problem.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem insisted at a news conference in Syria's capital, however, that any strikes on its territory must be coordinated with Damascus.
"Syria is ready for cooperation and coordination at the regional and international level to fight terrorism and implement UN Security Council resolution 2170," Muallem said.
The resolution, passed earlier this month, seeks to cut funds and the flow of foreign fighters both to the Islamic State and to Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front.
Western powers fear the IS "caliphate" a successor state to historic Muslim empires could become a launchpad for a new round of global terror attacks.
Those fears were exacerbated by the grisly IS beheading of American journalist James Foley, who was abducted in Syria.
Washington has ramped up its rhetoric following the beheading, calling it "a terrorist attack against our country" and said operations against the group in Syria may also be necessary.
But the White House said on Monday that President Barack Obama has yet to make a decision on the Syria strikes.
Citizens from various western countries are fighting for IS, further raising fears that they could carry out attacks at home.
In a statement Sunday claiming a string of attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk that killed 24 people the previous day, IS identified two of the three suicide bombers as German.
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