Abducted Yazidi women sold to IS fighters in Syria

Over 40 Iraqi women from the Yazidi religious minority who were kidnapped by Islamic State extremists have been sold to the group's fighters in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

26 June, 2015

Yazidi women are being treated as 'slaves' by IS extremists [AFP]

The Islamic State group sold 42 Iraqi women it had abducted from the Yazidi religious minority to its fighters in eastern Syria on Thursday, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the women were being treated as "slaves" by the extremists and were sold "for between $500 (447 euros) and $2,000 dollars (1,785 euros)".

The women were kidnapped last year in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq where IS had launched a wide offensive, the Britain-based monitor said.

Earlier this month they were brought to the IS-held town of Mayadeen in Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province.

"Some were abducted with their children but we do not know their fate," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Yazidis, a religious minority which lives mainly in Iraq's Sinjar region, are neither Muslims nor Arabs and follow a unique faith and are considered infidels by IS.

In 2014, IS fighters massacred Yazidis, forced tens of thousands of them to flee, captured thousands of girls and women as spoils of war and used them as sex slaves.

The UN has said the atrocities committed against the small community may amount to genocide.