Ten years ago, on August 3, fighters from Islamic State (IS) left their bases in Syria and Iraq to attack the Sinjar region of north-western Iraq. Sinjar was home to the Yazidi people, a religious group native to the region. IS saw religious groups like the Yazidi as blasphemous and aimed to wipe them out.
Without much warning, around 350,000 Yazidis were forced to flee their homes and many sought refugee on Mount Sinjar, a mountain that the Yazidi see as sacred. Hundreds of children and elderly people died from dehydration and exposure as IS forces besieged the mountain. IS fighters were only pushed back a few days later by Iraqi and Kurdish troops, assisted by US airstrikes.
IS was prevented from wiping out all of the Yazidi on Mount Sinjar. But the group captured thousands of Yazidi men, women and children. All of the men were killed in front of their families, along with many elderly women and children. Some were even buried alive. The women and children who survived were taken to Syria, where they were sold and sexually enslaved by IS fighters.
