MORE than 300 Yazidi men were killed and 1,000 women and children were taken hostage after Islamist militants stormed their village in northwestern Iraq, Kurdish officials said last night.

The massacre of members of the minority faith — denounced by the jihadists as “devil worshippers” — took place after members of the Sunni extremist group Isis, also known as Islamic State, laid siege to their village, Kocho. They told the Yazidis: “You have two choices: be killed or convert to Islam.”

When the villagers refused, the jihadists struck. The killings are believed to have taken place on Friday.

The village lies near the town of Sinjar, which the jihadists had stormed on August 3, sending tens of thousands of Yazidis fleeing to the nearby mountain.