Story highlights Ethnic cleansing has displaced, killed and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Yazidis

ISIS has moved Yazidi women from Mosul, Iraq, to Raqqa, Syria, monitoring group says

(CNN) Dozens of Yazidi women captured and enslaved by ISIS in 2014 have been moved from the Iraqi city of Mosul to Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitoring group and US military officials have said ISIS militants are fleeing Mosul and heading for Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS, as Iraqi-led forces push to free the key Iraqi city from the terror group.

Dozens of ISIS families have already arrived in Raqqa, the observatory said.

Ethnic cleansing by ISIS has displaced, killed and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Yazidis, members of an ancient ethnic and religious minority. Modern-day Iraq is the traditional homeland of the Yazidis.

Islamic militants captured thousands of Yazidi women and children, and killed the men. ISIS claims the Quran justifies taking non-Muslim women and girls captive and permits them to be raped -- an assertion denied by Islamic scholars.

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