Over 100 Yazidis Flee Iraq Daily Fleeing From Islamic State

Yazidis, a Kurdish religious community, are leaving Iraq in an attempt to save themselves from the advancing troops of the Islamic State, according to an official within an organization which aids the Yazidi community.

MOSCOW, August 4 (Sputnik) — At least 100 members of the Iraqi Yazidi minority flee the country every day to protect themselves and their families from Islamic State (ISIL) militants, an official in an organization that helps abducted Yazidis has estimated, as quoted by the local IraqiNews portal on Tuesday.

"More than 100 Yazidis are heading outside the country every day," Hussein Qaiada said.

He added that at the moment there were at least 300 Yazidis, mostly women and children, still being held by ISIL militants, who "expose them to various types of abuse and torture."

The Yazidis are a Kurdish religious community living primary in northern Iraq's Nineveh Governorate.

In late April, lawmakers in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called the ISIL actions against the Yazidi population, as well as against Shiite and Christian minorities, genocide.

Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, and is notorious for committing numerous human rights atrocities and killings.