Iraq's politicians are appealing to the international community to help battle Islamic State fighters as their dramatic push into the country's north continues.
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group controls much of northwestern Iraq. Recently, IS militants managed to oust Pershmerga and Yezidi minorities, sparking an exodus said to be in the hundreds of thousands.
The IS militants are hostile to Shiite Muslims, Kurds, Christians and other groups who don't agree with their brand of Sunni Islam, but the Yezidi in particular are being targeted.
Who are the Yezidi?
Numbering about 700,000 worldwide the Yezidi are a sect that combines elements of Islam and Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion dating back to at least 600 B.C.
According to The International Business Times, there are around 500,000 Yezidi in Iraq, mainly in the north where IS have captured the towns of Zumar and Sinjar.
Ethnically the Yezidi are Kurdish, and are considered fellow Kurds up north.
Under Saddam Hussein's rule many Yezidi villages were wiped out as troops moved in on Iraq's Kurdistan region.
There are smaller Yezidi populations in Germany, Syria, Russia, Armenia and Georgia. The are around 500 Yezidi living in the US, according to the Joshua Project.
What do the Yezidi believe in?
The Yezidis are a closed community that avoids prolonged contact with those outside the sect. They also refuse to accept converts.
Yezidis contend their faith is the world's oldest saying they were the first people to be created in the Garden of Eden.
Website yeziditruth says they believe in seven deities that form the colours of the rainbow, including "Tawsi Melek" or "the Peacock Angel".
But another name for "Tawsi Melek" is "Shaytan" (or Satan), the Arabic word for "devil" or "demon".
This is mainly why IS militants have labelled Yezidis "devil worshippers". After moving into northern Iraq, the militants gace them four choices: leave, convert to Islam, pay a tax for non-believers, or die.
What's happening to the Yezidi now?
The push by the Islamic State in cities like Sinjar has forced tens of thousands of the Yezidi to rush into the surrounding mountains, or neighbouring cities in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Zahran Jardo, who's taken refuge in an abandoned building in the city of Dohuk, said those who've remain in Sinjar are surrounded by danger.
"Those who stayed are now suffering from thirst," she said. "They have no water. They also took girls and raped them. They said that Yezidis have to be converted to Islam. This cannot happen. Where are the officials? No one has looked after us and no one asks about the fate of the Yezidis."
Children make up about half of Sinjar's population.
Will Parks, the UNICEF Chief Field Officer in Iraq's Kurdish region, said about half of the 50,000 people believed to be stranded in the mountains near Sinjar are also children.
"We know for sure that 40 children have already died," he said. "That's the numbers we can confirm, but it's probably much more than that. The situation for them is they're on the mountains, they're on the sides of the mountains, they've got no vegetation, no cover. They're sleeping out in the open, they've got no food, no water, no medical supplies."
What's being done to help the Yezidi?
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has sent the air force into the country's north. While that may help the Yezidi, it's still trying to raise awareness about their suffering in Iraq.
