[killed 500 and abducted 500 women to be slave concubines]
[At least 500 members of the Yazidi Kurdish sect have been "executed" by the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, with some victims "buried alive", ]
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic
State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic
minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq's human rights
minister told Reuters on Sunday.
Mohammed Shia
al-Sudani said the Sunni militants had also buried alive some of their
victims, including women and children. Some 300 women were kidnapped as
slaves, he added.
"We have striking evidence
obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and
also crime scene images that show indisputably that the gangs of the
Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar,"
Sudani told Reuters.
Sinjar
is the ancient home of the Yazidis, one of the towns captured by the
Sunni militants who view the community as "devil worshipers".
"Some of the victims, including women and children were buried alive in
scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar," Sudani said.
The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and
Syria, has prompted tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians to flee
for their lives during their push to within a 30-minute drive of the
Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
The Yazidis, followers of an
ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern
Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.
A deadline passed at midday on Sunday for 300 Yazidi families to
convert to Islam or face death at the hands of the Islamic State. It was
not immediately clear whether the Iraqi minister was talking about the
fate of those families or others in the conflict.
The militant group, which arrived in northern Iraq in June, has routed
Kurds in its latest advance, seizing several towns, a fifth oilfield and
Iraq's biggest dam - possibly gaining the ability to flood cities and
cut off water and power supplies.
(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alison Williams)
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