IS commits 'genocide' in Iraq's north, says Chancellor Merkel

Atrocities committed by the Islamic State militant group in northern Iraq can be described as "genocide," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.

"It is a terrible abomination. We can speak of a genocide," Merkel told her party's CDU TV channel.

She defended the government plan to supply weapons to Kurdish forces battling Islamic State militants in the region. 

Chancellor Merkel’s coalition government announced last week that it had started preparations for supplying arms and ammunition to Iraqi Kurds in their fight against the insurgent group, formerly known as the ISIL.

She told CDU TV that the Kurdish forces were in urgent need of "better equipment."

Germany's federal parliament is scheduled to meet Monday to debate the government’s plans to supply arms to Iraqi Kurds.

The government has earlier promised close cooperation with the foreign policy and defense committees of the parliament but ruled out need for an approval by the parliament for sending arms to the Iraqi Kurdish regional government.