ISIS have killed over 300 Yazidi prisoners in Iraq following the kidnapping of 40,00 people last summer.
The Yazidi Progress Party condemned the killings, referring to the murders as ‘heinous criminal acts’ commited by ISIS.
Dailymail.co.uk reports:
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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.
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.
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.
