ISIS appears "desperate" and is losing ground to Kurdish fighters who are battling the radicals "on behalf of humanity," the head of a U.N. panel on Syria said Thursday. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of a U.N. Human Rights Council investigative panel on Syria, made the comments to the Associated Press after it issued a new report on Syria's civil war. It said ISIS has resorted to tactics like hit-and-run attacks and suicide car bombings after losses to Kurds backed by U.S.-led coalition air power. "I think they are desperate, because they are losing ground," Pinheiro said of ISIS, noting its recent gains and losses. "I think at this moment they continue to win in psychological terms, in attracting the youth from Europe and those kinds of countries. But in fact in terms of war in the territory, they are beginning to feel the pressure." But U.S. intelligence officials said this summer that even though more than 10,000 extremist fighters have been killed, ISIS is fundamentally no weaker than it was when the U.S.-led bombing campaign began a year ago. The group controls vast swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq. The panel's report – the 10th of its kind – offered few major new insights into the grinding more than 4-year-old conflict, with "no end in sight." Commission members said this edition is highlighting the immense suffering of Syrian civilians, including some 250,000 who have been killed. "Civilians are suffering the unimaginable as the world stands witness," Pinheiro said. Tactics such as encircling populated areas have caused starvation, malnutrition and chronic illness among besieged residents, the report said. It alleged abuses by several sides, including President Bashar Assad's forces, ISIS and Al-Qaeda-backed Nusra Front. The report is based on 335 interviews with victims and witnesses collected from January to July 2015. It is to be presented to the Human Rights Council meeting on Sept. 21. Pinheiro called on governments to stop shipping arms to the warring sides but refused to identify suppliers, saying that was not the panel's role. The panelists lamented that the Security Council has not authorized the appointment of an international war crimes prosecutor. Permanent council member Russia, which has backed Assad's government, has blocked attempts to strengthen international action. "A resonant cry for peace and accountability rings out," said Pinheiro, also urging the world to allow in more desperate Syrian refugees. "The war is increasingly driven by international and regional powers, primarily in accordance with their respective geostrategic interests," the report said without naming names. The Syrian army and Hezbollah allies are fighting rebels in the conflict and Damascus has received financial and military support from Iran. Syria has blamed some recent insurgent advances on support from Damascus' enemies Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. "The competition among regional powers for influence has resulted ... in an alarming exacerbation of the sectarian dimension, instigated by the intervention of foreign fighters and extremist clerics," the report said. The government of Assad has continued aerial bombing of residential areas of Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Idlib, Damascus and Deraa, "leading to widespread civilian casualties." State helicopters have dropped barrel bombs, it added, calling for a halt to the use of illegal weapons. "Investigations are continuing into the alleged use of chemical weapons, in the form of chlorine and/or phosgene gas, in Sarmin, Saraqeb, Qmenas and Binnish, as well as other towns and villages in Idlib in March and April," the report said, referring to allegations that barrel bombs containing poisonous gas were dropped in the province. The investigators, who have interviewed 600 former prisoners since 2011, said: "Almost all have been victims and or witnesses of torture. Many have been present at the death of cellmates." "The government is responsible for the deaths of detainees on a massive scale." ISIS, whose Syrian stronghold is in Raqqa, has escalated attacks on Homs and Hassaka provinces, the report said. Its forces have attacked Kurdish communities, the most deadly being in June in Ain al-Arab where an estimated 250 civilians were killed. "ISIS has committed murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence, forcible displacement and other inhumane acts as part of a widespread attack on the civilian population, amounting to crimes against humanity," it said. These also constituted war crimes, along with ISIS using children in combat and attacking protected cultural objects. The Nusra Front, linked to Al-Qaeda, has led rebel gains in Idlib, "imposing its extremist ideology." "The Commission continues to investigate reports of ISIS fighters throwing gay men off high buildings and their being beheaded by Nusra," it said.
