7 The Yazidi people were targeted by the militant group Islamic State (IS) beginning in the summer of 2014, when IS swept into swaths of Iraq and Syria. Unlike Christians, many of whom were killed but some of whom were said to have been allowed to pay a religious tax without conversion, Yazidis were given two choices: Convert or die. IS militants have since massacred more than 5,000 Yazidis, and thousands of Yazidi girls and women remain captive as sex slaves.