IS militants swept through Syria and Iraq on a wave of violence. But as the terror group has killed thousands, it’s been especially focused on the Yazidi minority in Iraq. An issue of the group’s English-language magazine, Dabiq, described the Yazidi as "devil worshipers" and called on IS followers to kill male Yazidi and enslave the women.
"Sit in wait for them at every place of ambush," the magazine read.
According to a new report from the US Holocaust Museum, the terrorist group has been acting on that decree.
"Men immediately were separated from the women and children," the report, entitled "Our Generation Is Gone: The Islamic State’s Targeting of Iraq Minorities," reads, describing an instance in the Yazidi village of Kocho.
"More than 500 men were placed in the gym on the first floor. The men had no idea what was happening. …They were then divided into car loads and taken a short distance away. Once they arrived at their destination, they were lined up, videotaped, and then shot."
Women and children, the report says, were "forced to convert and were enslaved. Many have been subjected to sexual violence and given to IS fighters as sex slaves."
This deliberate, declared intent to exterminate the Yazidi people is what many would define as genocide.
"What we found there was a deliberate attempt by the forces of the Islamic State to not only ethnically cleanse the Yazidi population but to exterminate them," said Cameron Hudson, director of the museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide, according to Yahoo News.
But while applying that label adds moral weight to the atrocities, it also has real world implications for the international community. In the past, the United States has resisted labeling similar ethnic targeting as genocides – the murder of Tutsis in Rwanda and non-Arabs in Darfur, for example – for fear that it force them to act.
A 1948 treaty – of which the US is a signatory – says that all participating nations must take actions to "prevent and punish" the "odious scourge" of genocide. While the Pentagon is still conducting covert combat operations in Iraq, the United States is still officially intent on extricating itself from a country it spent over a decade invading. If genocide is being waged against the Yazidis, it could be another complication toward achieving that goal.
Still, other US officials stress that the designation is appropriate, given the facts on the ground, and suggest that applying the term should not necessarily affect the Pentagon’s current strategy – however loosely defined that strategy may be.
"We’re already at war with ISIL," one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yahoo News.
The US-led coalition continues to bomb IS targets, and President Obama has announced a new plan to deploy up to 50 US Special Forces "advisers," but that strategy may not be enough to save the 3,500 Yazidi women and children who have been kidnapped, or prevent the deaths of another 1,500 Yazidi men.
