More than 300 Yazidi prisoners have been slaughtered by Islamic State militants near Mosul in Iraq.

According to the Yazidi Progress Party, hundreds were murdered by Isis on Friday in the Tal Afar district.

It comes after around 40,000 people were kidnapped at gunpoint when the terrorists attacked Yazidi villages last summer.

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Captives: Hundreds of Yazidi prisoners were murdered by Isis on Friday in the Tal Afar district of Iraq

The party statement, quoted by Shafaq News, condemned the 'heinous criminal acts' committed by Isis against the Yazidis.

Meanwhile, a Yazidi lawmaker quoted a lower number of victims today, and said they were shot at a prison camp in Tal Afar.

Legislator Mahma Khalil said he spoke to four different people with knowledge of what happened inside the camp.

'The militants want to spread horror among them to force them to convert to Islam or to do something else,' he said.

Last month, more than 200 Yazidi prisoners, including 40 children, were set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Isis captivity

YAZIDIS' PLIGHT AT HANDS OF ISIS Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled in August when Isis captured the Iraqi town of Sinjar. Hundreds were taken captive, with some Yazidi women forced into slavery, according to international rights groups and Iraqi officials. About 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children, according to U.N. figures - fled to the mountains outside Sinjar during the onslaught. Some still remain there. The US launched air strikes and humanitarian aid drops in Iraq on August 8, partly in response to the crisis on Sinjar mountain. Since then, a US-led coalition of countries have conducted air strikes across Iraq in an effort to destroy Isis. The Sunni militant group views Yazidis and Shiite Muslims as apostates deserving of death, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Previously, the group has let go of hundreds of Yazidis held in captivity. Iraqi and Kurdish officials said they believe the militants couldn't afford caring for the prisoners, many of whom were elderly and sick. Advertisement

He added that those killed included men, women and the elderly. He said he believes some 1,400 other Yazidis are still held in that camp.

The sect, whose ancient religion has elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, suffered grievously after ISIS' rapid offensive last year.

Hundreds were killed and thousands captured, enslaved and raped by the extremists, who consider the members of the religious minority devil worshippers.

Last month, more than 200 Yazidi prisoners were set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Isis captivity.

Made up of women, children and the elderly, they were said to be in poor health and bearing signs of abuse and neglect.

General Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said that about 40 children were among those released, while the rest were elderly, some of whom were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.

No reason was given for the release of the prisoners, which took place in Himera just south west of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.

Yazidis who were freed by Islamic State militants hug each other on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq on April 8

The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care.

The militants want to spread horror among them to force them to convert to Islam or to do something else Legislator Mahma Khalil

In March, the United Nations Human Rights Office published a horrifying report describing killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery of Yazidis by the Islamic extremists, as well as the use of child soldiers.

The jihadists consistently separated out men and boys over the age of 14 to be executed, according to investigators.

Younger boys were forced to become child soldiers and women and girls were abducted as the 'spoils of war'.

The Yezidi Progress Party statement also called on the government in Iraq and international organisations to intervene to facilitate the release of the captives.