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Kurdish Boys from Kobane Detail Awful Abuses at the Hands of the Islamic State

Kurdish boys from the Syrian town of Kobane were repeatedly beaten with an electric cable and a hose while in the custody of Islamic State militants and forced to watch videos of the terror group’s beheadings and attacks, Human Rights Watch reported on Tuesday.

The taking of 153 of these children hostage and the accompanying physical abuse amount to war crimes under international law, contributing to the astonishing assortment of offenses against humanity that the Islamic State (also known as ISIS/ISIL) is believed to have committed — including summary mass executions and the selling of sex slaves.

Bombing Japan: Necessity – or War Crime?

It’s been 70 years since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Were the nuclear bombings a wartime necessity – or serious war crimes against humanity?

What is a Barrel Bomb?

Barrel bomb attacks kill thousands of people in Syria every year. So why do these attacks get so little attention? The Syrian Network for Human Rights says nearly 14,000 people have been killed in barrel-bomb attacks despite a UN resolution banning the use of the weapon in 2014.

Making Sense of Chattanooga

Investigators and lawmakers have linked the Chattanooga shooter to ISIS-inspired groups, but evidence so far suggests otherwise. According to the gunman’s family, they sent him to Jordan for seven months to live with his uncle in the hope that he’d clean up his act and stop drinking.