Yazidis 'massacred' by jihadists in northern Iraq village: reports

Islamist extremists in Iraq killed 80 Yazidi men and abducted their wives and children, witnesses said yesterday, insisting the religious community was still at risk after a week of US and Iraqi airstrikes on the militants.

Airstrikes, meanwhile, targeted insurgents around Iraq's largest dam, which was captured by the Islamic State extremist group earlier this month, according to nearby residents. It was not clear who carried out the strikes.

The United States began launching airstrikes against Islamic State a week ago, in part to prevent the massacre of tens of thousands of Yazidis stranded on a mountaintop. After most were able to escape with the help of Kurdish fighters, US President Barack Obama took credit for alleviating the threat of genocide.

But on Friday Islamic State fighters who had surrounded the nearby village of Kocho 12 days ago, demanding its Yazidi residents convert or die, moved in.

The militants took the men away in groups of a few dozen and shot them dead with assault rifles on the edge of the village, according to a wounded man who escaped by feigning death.

The fighters then walked among the bodies, finishing off any who appeared to still be alive with their pistols, the 42-year-old man said by phone from an area where he was hiding out.