About 300 Yazidi captives of Islamic State were executed by the Islamist group west of the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul in Iraq on Friday, Iraqi and Yazidi officials said, according to the BBC.

According to a statement released by the Yazidi Progress Party, the captives were killed in the Tal Afar district, near Mosul. Iraq's vice president, Osama al-Nujaifi, said the alleged massacre was "horrific and barbaric," BBC reported.

According to the BBC, if the reports of the massacre are true, it is unclear why they were killed.

The Yazidis, a religious minority group, are considered infidels by Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Since ISIS took over large swathes of Iraq, including the Yazidi district of Sinjar, hundreds of Yazidi men have been reportedly executed, and Yazidi women and children were reportedly sold as slaves.

In January, ISIS reportedly released some 350 Yazidi captives, delivering them to safety in the country's Kurdish north.

Almost all those released were elderly, disabled, or unwell, and included several infants with serious illnesses, according to a Reuters reporter who saw them arrive in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk.



