Isis militants slaughter more than 300 Yazidi captives in northern Iraq after thousands were taken captive from villages
- Hundreds of Yazidi prisoners have been killed near Mosul in northern Iraq
- Yazidi Progress Party condemned the 'heinous criminal acts' by extremists
- About 40,000 were captured when Isis attacked Yazidi villages last summer
More than 300 Yazidi prisoners have been slaughtered by Islamic State militants near Mosul in Iraq.
According to the Yazidi Progress Party, hundreds were murdered by Isis on Friday in the Tal Afar district.
It comes after around 40,000 people were kidnapped at gunpoint when the terrorists attacked Yazidi villages last summer.
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Captives: Hundreds of Yazidi prisoners were murdered by Isis on Friday in the Tal Afar district of Iraq
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The party statement, quoted by Shafaq News, condemned the 'heinous criminal acts' committed by Isis against the Yazidis.
Meanwhile, a Yazidi lawmaker quoted a lower number of victims today, and said they were shot at a prison camp in Tal Afar.
Legislator Mahma Khalil said he spoke to four different people with knowledge of what happened inside the camp.
'The militants want to spread horror among them to force them to convert to Islam or to do something else,' he said.
Last month, more than 200 Yazidi prisoners, including 40 children, were set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Isis captivity
He added that those killed included men, women and the elderly. He said he believes some 1,400 other Yazidis are still held in that camp.
The sect, whose ancient religion has elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, suffered grievously after ISIS' rapid offensive last year.
Hundreds were killed and thousands captured, enslaved and raped by the extremists, who consider the members of the religious minority devil worshippers.
Last month, more than 200 Yazidi prisoners were set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Isis captivity.
Made up of women, children and the elderly, they were said to be in poor health and bearing signs of abuse and neglect.
General Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said that about 40 children were among those released, while the rest were elderly, some of whom were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.
No reason was given for the release of the prisoners, which took place in Himera just south west of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Yazidis who were freed by Islamic State militants hug each other on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq on April 8
The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care.
In March, the United Nations Human Rights Office published a horrifying report describing killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery of Yazidis by the Islamic extremists, as well as the use of child soldiers.
The jihadists consistently separated out men and boys over the age of 14 to be executed, according to investigators.
Younger boys were forced to become child soldiers and women and girls were abducted as the 'spoils of war'.
The Yezidi Progress Party statement also called on the government in Iraq and international organisations to intervene to facilitate the release of the captives.
THE YAZIDIS: THE MINORITY PEOPLE REGARDED AS 'DEVIL WORSHIPPERS'
The number of Yazidis has reduced from millions to an estimated 700,000
Unjustly regarded as ‘devil worshippers’ on account of their unusual beliefs, the Yazidi have for centuries been one of the most persecuted minorities of the Middle East. Islamic extremists regard them as infidels, worthy only of being killed.
They are an ethnic Kurdish people who tend to have fairer complexions than many in the Middle East.
They adhere to a 4,000-year-old faith passed down and adapted through the generations by word of mouth, and composed of elements of several religions.
Their reverence for fire and light derives from the ancient faith called Zoroastrianism, the religion of Persia long before Islam arrived. They combine such Christian practices as baptism with Jewish or Islamic circumcision. Like Buddhists they believe in perpetual reincarnation.
Sunni extremists believe their name derives from a deeply unpopular seventh century caliph – or leader – Yazid ibn Muawiya.
In fact, it comes from the Persian word for angel or deity, ‘Ized’. Their name simply means ‘worshippers of God’.
The Yazidi once lived in a wide area across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. But successive waves of persecution - they claim to have survived 72 genocides - by the Ottoman Turkish rulers of what is now Iraq, by Saddam Hussein and now by Islamic militants, have reduced the number of Yazidi from millions to an estimated 700,000.
What makes the Yazidi still more vulnerable is the insular nature of their community. No one can convert to their religion, you have to be born into it. They also practice endogamy – that is, they only marry members of the same faith.
Equally, anyone who voluntarily leaves the religion risks death. In 2007, it was reported that Du’a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi woman, was stoned to death for converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man.
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