Germany plans trauma centre for IS rape victims — minister

BERLIN — A German government minister said Monday Berlin aimed to set up a trauma centre for victims of a mass rape campaign by the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Overseas Development Minister Gerd Mueller told the Bild newspaper that the care facility in Germany could serve 100 women and girls from Syria and Iraq.

Mueller said he had spoken with five young girls on a visit to Iraq who had been captured by IS and gang raped.

"Three of them are now pregnant. We have to take care of such girls," he said.

Mueller did not provide a timetable or say where in Germany the centre would be established.

IS spearheaded a sweeping offensive that has overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria since June.

In November, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria released its first report focused on IS crimes, presenting a horrifying picture of what life is like in areas controlled by the jihadists, including massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has become the continent's top destination for asylum seekers. It expects around 230,000 asylum seekers in 2015, up from a predicted 200,000 this year.

The influx has spawned a far-right populist movement which has been staging demonstrations in cities across the country against the "Islamisation" of Germany.