ISIS: Militants Massacre Yazidi and Syrian Tribes People in the Hundreds
News about atrocities at the hands of the Islamist militant group continues to trickle to the West. In the latest reports, around 80 Yazidi have been massacred in Iraq, while other reports say that around 700 tribal villagers have been killed in Syria.
The Islamist extremist group known as ISIS has taken over parts of northern Syria and northern Iraq, violently imposing extremist views of Islam and removing any perceived threats. According to BBC News, ISIS has executed scores of Yazidis in remote villages in northern Iraq.
The massacre happened on Friday when ISIS forces arrived in the town of Kawju (also known as Kocho) and rounded up the men in the village. According to survivors and officials, including Iraq's foreign minister, who spoke with BBC News, the Yazidi villagers were given the option to convert to Islam or be executed.
The Associated Press reported 80 Yazidi men were killed in the village after ISIS took over; however, BBC News reported the men were killed in the town's school, but the AP reported they were shot in the town's outskirts.
A 42-year-old survivor of the massacre, who feigned death, told the AP that ISIS fighters shot those who appeared to remain alive with pistols.
"They thought we were dead, and when they went away, we ran away. We hid in a valley until sundown, and then we fled to the mountains," he said.
Reports from both news agencies say that the surviving women and children were taken to the ISIS-controlled city of Tal Afar.
Across the border a similar situation unfolds. A human rights organization reported that ISIS has killed around 700 villagers from the al-Sheitat tribe in Syria, according to Al-Jazeera.
The villagers have been fighting ISIS in the Deir Ezzor province where they live. Relaying the information has been the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog that relies on activists and other sources in Syria for information, Al-Jazeera reported.
Around 100 fighters were killed by ISIS but the rest were civilians, according to the Observatory; however, the fate of the remaining 1,800 tribe members is unknown.
According to Reuters, an activist speaking on condition of anonymity said that around 300 people of the tribe were killed in the village of Ghraneij, one of the three main towns were the tribe resides.
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