Persecution of Yazidis by the Islamic State

Yazidi genocide (by ISIL)
Images from top, left and right: Yazidi refugees receiving support from the International Rescue Committee. A member of the U.S. Mt. Sinjar Assessment Team being greeted by locals near Sinjar, Iraq. Bundles of water inside a C-17 Globemaster III before a humanitarian airdrop by the United States Air Force.
Location	Sinjar, Iraq  Syria
Date	August 2014 – Present
Target	Yazidi people
Attack type	Genocidal massacre, ethnic cleansing, forced conversion
Deaths	2,100 to 4,400 and rising (per Sinjar massacre)
Non-fatal injuries	4,200 to 10,800 kidnapped and rising (per Sinjar massacre)
Perpetrators	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Defenders	Kurdistan Workers' Party People's Protection Units Sinjar Alliance  Iraq
Motive	Religious persecution, human trafficking, and forced conversions to Sunni Islam

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, calling itself Islamic State) is recognized by the UN as the perpetrator of a genocide of Yazidis in Iraq. The genocide has led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their ancestral lands in Northern Iraq. The genocide led to the abduction of Yazidi women and massacres that killed thousands of Yazidi civilians during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign" being carried out in Northern Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), starting in 2014.

ISIL's persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and it directly led to the American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL. Additionally, the US, UK, and Australia made emergency airdrops to Yazidis who had fled to a mountain range and provided weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga defending them alongside PKK and YPG forces. ISIL's actions against the Yazidi population resulted in approximately 500,000 refugees and several thousand killed and kidnapped.

The Yazidis are monotheists who believe in a benevolent peacock angel and practice an ancient gnostic faith. The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Islamic extremists tend to view the peacock angel as the malevolent creature Lucifer or Shaitan and they consider the Yazidis 'devil worshippers'.