Survivors of an attack on a village in northern Iraq by Islamic State (IS) fighters claim that scores of Yazidi men were executed.
Iraqi officials say the jihadists first visited Kocho 12 days ago and gave residents a deadline to convert to Islam before returning on Friday.
The men of the village were lined up in small groups and fired upon with assault rifles, according to accounts by survivors.
Nayef Jassem, the brother of the mayor of Kocho lost at least three sons and one nephew in what he describes as the “massacre”.
“They separated women and children from the men. They took their IDs, gold and personal belongings. Then they took the men, group by group, outside of the village by cars, and killed them until there were no men were left in the village. Then they took the women by cars somewhere towards Sinjar. I don’t know where they took them,” Jassem said.
Iraqi and Kurdish officials believe at least 80 men were shot.
Yazidi residents say the number was much higher as there were at least 175 families in the village and only a few escaped.
IS militants have targeted Iraq’s minority Yazidis and Christians as they swept across much of the country in recent weeks.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence.
