A chilling new video purports to show Islamic State fighters lounging in a room and calmly discussing how to buy and sell Yazidi women, referring to members of the Iraqi minority group abducted by the militants earlier this year.
“Today is the day of (female) slaves and we should have our share,” one of the fighters says, according to a translation of the footage by Middle East station Al Aan TV. “Where is my Yezidi girl?”
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The militants then launch into a discussion on swapping the girls for three or five banknotes, or possibly different types of pistols.
“The price differs if she has blue eyes,” someone says.
“If she is 15 years old, I have to check her, check her teeth,” another fighter says.
The camera then turns to a boy who appears to be in his early teens. One of the men asks whether he wants a Yazidi slave, and whether he can “handle her.” The boy nods and giggles.
Yazidi women captured by the Islamic State suffer terrible fate. Read more here.
Since the Islamic State began its lighting offensive across Iraq this summer, the Yazidis have been subjected to some of the most extreme violence and persecution at the hands of the Sunni insurgent group, including summary executions, rapes, torture, and forced conversion.
Some 500,000 Yazidis have been forced to flee their homes to the Sinjar mountains and Kurdish-held areas in northern Iraq since early August, according to UN figures. As many as 2,500 Yazidis have reportedly been captured and are being held by Islamic State fighters.
Last month, Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of Yazidi women and girls. The women in the report described being sold to militants who would pick them out of a line for their personal use. Some of the girls were as young as 12.
One girl related her experience of being sold along with her sister to an Islamic State member for $1,000. The siblings were then split up and she was taken to the fighter’s apartment where he attempted to rape her. The girl said she bolted while he was dozing.
Iraq’s Yazidis who fled to refugee camps say they will never go home. Read more here.
While the testimony heard by Human Rights Watch was from women who managed to escape, many more remain imprisoned by their captors. They have reportedly been beaten, sexually assaulted, and forced to marry fighters. Some have simply disappeared.
Yazidis are not the only minority being persecuted in Iraq. The Islamic State has also targeted Shiite Muslims and other Sunnis. At least 50 Sunni tribesmen, women, and children were massacred by militants in the village of Ras al-Maa on Sunday, adding to the some 150 members of the same tribe killed in recent days.
The Islamic State: Watch the entire VICE News documentary here.
VICE News’ Samuel Oakford contributed to this report.
Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields