ISLAMIC STATE EXTREMISTS DELIVER ULTIMATUM TO TRAPPED YAZIDIS: 'CONVERT TODAY - OR DIE'

Islamic State extremists deliver ultimatum to trapped Yazidis: 'Convert today - or die'

As Britain completes its first aid drop, terrified members of the beseiged Yazidi sect have reportedly been given the ultimatum by radical jihadis who have captured their villages

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle at the camp of Bajid Kandala at Feeshkhabour town near the Syria-Iraq border Photo: AP

By Alastair Beach

10:49AM BST 10 Aug 2014

Hundreds of terrified families belonging to the besieged Yazidi sect have reportedly been threatened with execution if they refuse to convert to Islam today, according to reports.

Yazidi refugees who are stranded on Mount Sinjar said they have received calls from family members trapped behind enemy lines in villages now controlled by Islamic State jihadis.

They have reportedly been handed a brutal ultimatum: convert to Islam – or die.

According to Matthew Barber, an academic who is currently in northern Iraq, the ultimatum has been issued to families trapped in three villages held by the Islamic State.
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“Hearing multiple accounts of a convert-or-die ultimatum,” he said on Twitter. “Yazidis may die in the morning if resisting conversion,” he added.

Mr Barber, a graduate student from the University of Chicago, said the threat was made to families in the villages of Hatimiya, Tel Kucho and Tel Qasab – all settlements which have fallen under the control of Islamic State fundamentalists following the group’s incursions into northern Iraq.

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community arrive to the camp of Bajid Kandala (AP)

“Spoke to Yazidi man who received call from daughter in Hatimiya 1 hour ago,” he wrote. “She says IS has given them until morning to convert or be killed.”

Mr Barber, who appears to have spoken to refugees trapped on and around Mount Sinjar, also revealed further details about the advances made by the Islamic State.

“During our conversation this afternoon, a man received a call from relatives in Sinjar who said: “IS has just now blown up 50 houses here”.

Up to 150,000 desperate refugees are still stranded on Mount Sinjar, a barren stretch of mountain near the Syrian border now surrounded by Islamic extremists.

US forces have launched more airstrikes in northern Iraq to defend attacks on Yazidi civilians, according to the Pentagon, on the second day of its military campaign.

Meanwhile the British government last night delivered its first aid drop to the region, according to the Ministry of Defence.
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