OVER a dozen bodies were removed from a mass grave near Tikrit in Iraq yesterday as a new UN report accused Islamic State (Isis) forces of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The murderous group had committed “mass killings, torture and rape” in areas it controlled in Iraq and Syria, the report said.

Isis did not respond to the charges but makes no secret of its brutal methods, which have included beheading and burning captives to death, stoning women and hurling suspected gay people from rooftops.

It seized large areas of Iraq last summer with weapons passed to Syrian rebel groups by the US.

The extremist group claimed yesterday that it was behind Wednesday’s gun attacks on the Bardo museum in Tunisia, which left 23 dead including two of the attackers. A British victim, lawyer Sally Adey, has been identified among the dead.