U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said ISIS is “guilty of genocide.” Photo: Wikimedia Commons

JNS.org – The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday evening voted 393-0 in favor of a bipartisan resolution declaring that the Islamic State has committed genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.

“ISIS is guilty of genocide,” Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “With this declaration today, the House has taken a very serious step. There is no reason for the administration to drag out its own genocide determination any longer.”

The resolution also calls on the Obama administration and the United Nations to recognize the atrocities of the Islamic State as genocide.

“It is my sincere hope that this trans-partisan resolution will further compel the State Department to join the building international consensus in calling the horrific ISIS violence against Christians, Yezidis and others by its proper name: ‘genocide,’” said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) who introduced the measure.

A second measure of the resolution also said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime should be held accountable for its actions in the civil war over the past five years.

“More than 18,500 children are among the hundreds of thousands who’ve been killed by the chemical weapons, barrel bombs and firing squads unleashed by the Assad regime and its backers,” the statement claimed. “An international tribunal, like those established following the conflicts in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, is critical to ensuring peace and justice.”