Islamic State releases 350 Yazidis in northern Iraq

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has freed around 350 members of the minority Yazidi community in northern Iraq.

The group of Yazidis crossed out of IS-controlled territory and were received by Kurdish officials near the Kurdish-dominated Iraqi city of Kirkuk. It is as yet unclear why the militants released them.

Almost all of those released on Saturday were elderly or unwell, Reuters reported. The group, including several sick infants, were taken directly by Kurdish Peshmerga forces to a health centre for treatment.

"Some are wounded, some have disabilities and many are suffering from mental and psychological problems," Khodr Domli, a leading Yazidi rights activist, told the AFP news agency. "These men and women had been held in Mosul.”

One of those released, an elderly Yazidi man in a wheelchair, told AFP that the group spent months in captivity.

"It was so hard, not only because of the lack of food but also because I spent so much time worrying," he said.

Another elderly Yezidi among those released said that some of them feared they would be executed when the militants ordered them onto buses. Instead, they were taken to a crossing point between IS-controlled Hawija and the Kurdish city of Kirkuk.

IS attacked the Yazidi minority religious community in Iraq last year, killing and abducting thousands of people, and attracting worldwide condemnation.

Yazidi women and girls have been forced to marry or been sold into slavery by IS. Kurdish Peshmerga forces drove back Islamic State fighters in north-western Iraq last month, breaking a long siege of Mount Sinjar where thousands of Yazidis had been stranded for months.

However, several Yazidi villages remain under IS control and the Yazidi community estimates that around 3,000 women and children are still being held captive.