The situation continues to worsen in Iraq. The atrocities committed by ISIS against the Yazidi minority now involve mass murder and abductions, according to various sources in Iraq.

ISIS has vowed to destroy the Yazidi, a religious minority that has lived in northern Iraq for generations, because the Islamist extremists believe them to be "devil worshippers." An Iraqi official has told Reuters that ISIS executed around 500 Yazidis.

On Sunday, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraq's Human Rights Minister, reported hundreds of Yazidis, including women and children, were executed, including some who were buried alive in mass graves, according to Reuters.

"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 State have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," he said

Though the claims have not been independently verified, ISIS's persecution of the Yazidi is real. A report by Human Rights Watch reveals the extent of the Yazidi's suffering since ISIS began overrunning their towns.

According to the report, some of the thousands of Yazidis stranded in the mountains outside Sinjar have managed to escape the mountains. However, those arriving back into Iraqi Kurdistan have told human rights observers that some people, mostly children, have begun dying of dehydration and continue to ask for help.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has conducted more airstrikes against ISIS as well as more airdrops for the Yazidi in the mountains.

Though most of the strikes were aimed at ISIS artillery and armored positions heading toward Erbil, one of the strikes targeted ISIS forces besieging the Yazidi in the mountains. The humanitarian air drop also provided the Yazidi with more than 3,000 gallons of potable water and more than 16,000 meals.

However, the airstrike also had another helpful outcome. The Guardian reported the airstrike forced ISIS troops to retreat and allowed Syrian Kurdish rebels to move in and create an exit route for the beleaguered Yazidi.

Around half of the 40,000 Yazidis trapped managed to escape with cover from the rebel troops, who helped them cross into Syria and back into Iraq, the British newspaper reports. However, the plight of the Yazidi does not end here.

A spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Minister has told the Associated Press that ISIS has captured hundreds of Yazidi women under 35 and are holding them in Mosul. The U.S. has confirmed the allegations by spokesman Kamil Amin, though the number of women kidnapped is not certain.

"We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them," Amin said. "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."