Iraq Crisis: Hundreds of Yazidi Women Held as Slaves by Islamic State Militants

An Iraqi official has claimed that hundreds of Yazidi women have been taken captive by Islamic State militants.

Kamil Amin he spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry,said the women are below the age of 35 and are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul.

He said the ministry were informed by the families of the women that they had been kidnapped. Earlier reports indicated that capture Yazidi women were intended to be given to young jihadists as wives.

Contemplating the fate of the captured women, Amin said: "We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them. We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values."

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border.

The Yazidis are a religious minority, who practice an ancient religion with links to Zoroastrianism, that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

ISIS had issued an ultimatum to the Yazidi community to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death. The people fled to the mountains on the border of Syria to escape persecution.

Tens of thousands of Yazidi members now remain trapped on Mount Sinjar in Iraq without food and water.

If they choose to descend, they face being killed by Islamic State fighters, formerly the ISIS, which has taken control of vast swaths of Iraq.

Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF reported from the scene saying: 'There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. "There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State. It's a disaster, a total disaster.'

Footage of Yazidi women and children fleeing in the Sinjar mountains have emerged online. Long lines of Yazidi civilians walking rough paths along the mountains and taking shelter in improvised tent encampments can be seen in a video filmed by Kurdish TV channel ANF.

An Iraqi member of parliament, who belongs to the Yazidi broke down in tears as she pleaded with colleagues to help her community, warning that they are under siege by the Islamic State jihadist group and face imminent destruction.

Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil said: "We are being slaughtered, annihilated. An entire religion is being wiped off the face of the Earth. Brothers, I am calling out to you in the name of humanity! In the name of humanity, save us! Mr. Speaker, I want to. ... "

She then burst into tears. Composing herself she continued to highlight the plight of men and children who have been murdered, and women, who are being sold into slavery.

"I am standing here not in order to deliver a speech to the Iraqi people, but in order to convey the bitter reality of the Yazidis currently in Mount Sinjar. Mr. Speaker, under the slogan of 'There is no god but Allah,' 500 Yazidi boys and men have been slaughtered up to now."

"Mr. Speaker, our women are being taken captive and sold on the slave-market. ... Please, brothers. ... Please, brothers. ... A genocide campaign is taking place right now against the Yazidis."

In her impassioned speech she pleaded for solidarity and support to end the atrocities committed agisnt the Yazidis.

"Brothers, despite all the political disagreements, we want human solidarity. I speak in the name of humanity. Save us! Save us! For the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged on Mount Sinjar, without food or water. They are dying. Seventy children have died so far of thirst and suffocation. Fifty elderly people have died because of the deteriorating conditions. Our women are being taken captive and sold on the slave-market.

"Mr. Speaker, we call upon the Iraqi parliament to intervene immediately to stop this massacre. The Yazidis suffered 72 genocides, and it is being repeated in the 21st century."

There are now are only a handful of Christians left in Mosul, where believers have lived for two millennia.

Isamic State have already massacred around 500 Yazidi people in the town of Sinjar. The group were being protected by Kurds, but were overrun by the Islamists, who are attempting to create a caliphate in the region.