Islamic State Group Executes Hundreds of Yazidis in Iraq

The Islamic State group executed as many as 600 Yazidis in northern Iraq Friday, according to the ARA news agency.

"Women, children and elderly people are confirmed among the victims. (The Islamic State group) gathered them in one place and shot them all together," Kurdistan Democratic Party official Hassan Khallo told BAS News. "Along with the the Yazidis, (Islamic State group) militants killed a number of Shi'ite people as well."

The executions took place Iraq's Talafar district, near Mosul. In March, the United Nations accused the Islamic State group of committing “genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” against Iraq's Yazidi population. The crimes the U.N. report revealed included executions, torture, rape and sexual slavery, forced religious conversions and the conscription of children.

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“Without a direct intervention by the international community, Iraq will be witnessing more genocides against innocent people at the hands of the IS terrorists,” Shahin Shingali, a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, told ARA.

The Yazidis are a religious minority whose faith incorporates elements of many religions, including Zoroastrianism. The Islamic State group considers them infidels.