Hundreds Of Yazidis Freed By IS Militants

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Islamic State militants have released hundreds of Yazidis including several young children who were taken prisoner in Iraq five months ago.

Kurdish military officials said most were elderly and in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect.

The militants transported the captives from the northern town of Tal Afar, where they were being held following IS raids last summer.

They were dropped off at the Khazer Bridge, near the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil, from where Peshmerga forces took them to a health centre for treatment.

A Yazidi rights activist, who was at the centre, told AFP: "Some are wounded, some have disabilities and many are suffering from mental and psychological problems."

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Gallery: A Profile Of The Kurdish Group

The Yazidis have long been persecuted as "devil worshippers" by many governments and communities - yet they have managed to survive 72 genocides through the centuries

Islamic State (IS) militants forced them from their homes in Sinjar, northern Iraq, and into the surrounding mountains

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The Yazidis are not an offshoot of Christianity or Islam, although some of their beliefs are derived from Christianity

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Instead they believe in a supreme being, Yasdan, who created the world then put it in the care of seven angels. They worship a fallen angel, the Peacock Angel, who was forgiven by God

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Some extremists align the fallen angel with Satan - its other name is Shaytan, which is Arabic for devil - and hence accuse the group of being devil worshippers

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It is not clear why the group were freed, although their age and condition may have played a part.

General Shirko Fatih, commander of Kurdish forces in the northern city of Kirkuk, said it was because they had become a burden.

"It probably became too expensive to feed them and care for them," he said.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when IS captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border, last August.

But hundreds were taken prisoner, many of them women and girls who have reportedly been forced to marry or sold into slavery.

About 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children, according to the UN - fled to the mountains outside Sinjar during the onslaught. Some still remain there.

Yazidi beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions and the militants, who are Sunni Muslims, regard them as heretics.

ISIS currently holds large parts of northern Iraq and Syria. It is being targeted by US-led airstrikes as part of efforts to weaken its grip on the region.

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