The Yazidi women – who call themselves the ‘Force of the Sun Ladies’ – have taken up arms in the quest for revenge but also to preserve the future of their race.

They are among around 2,000 captives who have escaped their terrorist tormentors who subjected them to horrific torture and rape and massacred thousands of their loved ones after storming their villages in the summer of 2014.

Now, driven by a collective desire for vengeance, the battalion is preparing for an offensive on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul where many were exchanged by militants to serve as their sex slaves…

Capt Khatoon Khider, a member of the Sun Ladies, told media: ‘Whenever a war wages, our women end up as the victims.

‘Now we are defending ourselves from the evil. We are defending all the minorities in the region. We will do whatever is asked of us.’

She is among more than 100 Yazidi women who have trained with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces which are preparing to attack Mosul, with another 500 waiting to follow suit.