hem better prospects of survival instead of relying on a wing and a prayer. let's just remind you keep up to date with all the stories you have been talking about if you head to the website. it's aljazeera.com, see the front page with the lead story. communities thousands of years old. christians in lebanon, syria and egypt, jews samaritans and the yazidis an off shoot from the religious minorities. isil and the suffering of the yazidis. that's "inside story." >> hello, i'm ray suarez.

there are religious and ethnic minorities scattered across the middle east. in mean cases members of communities thousands of years old. christians in lebanon, syria and egypt, jews samaritans and the yazidis an off shoot from the ancient religion. as isil tightens it's grip it brings a particular level of abuse against those who proclaim against all odds of their airport faith. >> this is the scene in early august. thousands of yazidi trapped on mount sinjar, surrounded by isil fighters. the seen, which raised fears of genocide was one of the reasons president barack obama launched

airstrikes against isil. >> i directed our military to take strikes at isil convoys should they move towards the city. >> in the past few days the kurdish fighting force, the peshmerga, has almost retaken the town of sinjar with the help of the yazidi fighters. while this will relief the yazidis, a new report out from amnesty international called "escape from hell," torture and sexual slavery of yazidi girls. >> younger women and girls some as young as 12 were separated from their parents and older relatives and sold given as gifts or forced to marry i.s. fighters and supporters.

many had been subjected to torture and ill treatment, including rape. although a few hundred have escaped many more women remain in isil custody in syria and iraq. in desperation some have committed suicide. the i yazidi practice a religion that isil and other groups consider heretical. as the u.s. continues its campaign against the militant group in syria and iraq. just last week the pentagon reported three top isil leaders had been killed in airstrikes, including isil's top military leader. since the air campaign "g" began in august the u.s. has spent more than $1 billion, and the u.s. and it's coalition partners have conducted more than 1371 airstrikes in both countries.

>> the blowtorch of the islamic state and the religious cleansing . the amnesty international report talks of cruelty on the part of islamic state fighters that stand in contrast . what explains the current suffering of the yazidis, and what does the future hold for them? we'll start the program in erbil, iraq. a member of iraq's yazidi community, welcome to the program. what's the situation that we find ourselves in as 2014 ends? are there any traditional yazidi areas that have been untouched in this war? >> reporter: thank you very much much. yazidis, no, and it's a tough

situation. after four and a half months of control of sinjar, and kidnapping 5,300 women and girls, 479 have escaped girls, women and children. still there are more than 3,000 women being kidnapped and disappear and being controlled by the isis. so the yazidi situation is a terrible situation, especially in sinjar and sinjar mountain after the third of august when isis control sinjar, they not just kidnap the woman. but kidnap the woman, kill the men and destroy yazidi temples south of sinjar. so the situation

we can say it's also isis tried to finish the yazidi history from the area and very, very sad to scene to see yazidi, women and children who have been kidnapped, and they are very near sinjar mountain. >> there have been stories coming out for months now about what the islamic state does when it takes over an area. a lot of people have gotten killed. not just people from minorities. but if you are a yazidi, are you in more danger than if you were a christian, who refused to convert, or a muslim from another sect that does not follow the sunni islam of the islamic state?

>> actually, yes. isis, when they come to the area, they make a big plan of how they genocide the yazidi. also from especially in sinjar because sinjar is a big area for the yazidi. they do different kind of dealing with the other minority in mosul. they kidnap a woman, and also as a gift, but with the other they don't do that. they kill more than 3,000 people from thepeople, and sinjar especially south of sinjar. one of the massacres to happen,

until yesterday and this morning, the yazidis fight, and peshmerga liberate north of sinjar, they find more mass grave of civilian people who have been killed by isis. if you see isis, they have a plan to just finish or clean the area from yazidis. so it's a really big genocide and tragic area that still continues. even the peshmerga, they control the north of sinjar. but it is the north of the area and south that is surrounded by isis. >> are there places in iraq that have been home to yazidis for a long time that now it's hard to see them from ever going home. they have yazidis have been wiped out, and it's unlikely they'll ever go home again? >> you know, the home of the

yazidis in the south of kurdistan, especially in kurdistan region and iraq, but most of the yazidis in iraq they live in a disputed area, especially in sinjar. when isis come, they start in the north of mosul, and other yazidi villages. they destroy a lot of i yazidi temples. so all of those people, now more than 400,000 yazidi s. 90% of the yazidi s, the situation is now--you cannot describe it in short sentences. we are in the 21st century still the given as a gift, the woman, she is

$100 for the islamic fighter, and more than 2,500 women and children now they are in the west , one of the peshmerga, army and isis. there are 600,000 in iraq, and more than 3,000 people are being kidnapped, it mean that more than a thousand of families are in tragedy of situations. >> thank you for joining us. yazidi journalist currently with joining us from iraq.

now our guests: >> and andrew, let me start with you. is there something different about the objectives, the aims of the islamic state that makes the assignment more than just capturing and holding land? why spend so much time trying to wipe out a small and not very numerous, not very influence group of people who don't share your religion? >> thanks for having me, and your first guest told a compelling story, and it's what prompted president obama in august to decide basically, you know, enough is enough. we got to step in and stop this.

the approaching genocide was clear, and the yazidis, as i think you've suggested, are a particular target of the islamic state. why is that? they're not a threat militarily. certainly not. there are half a million or so yazidis. some of them are fighting extremely are a bravely to retake their villages and their towns but the islamic state had labeled them as devil worshipers, and spread these terrible untruths. i think it really shows how single-minded, how brainwashed and how inflexible , they lack any amount of pragmatism. most other militant groups

whether al-qaeda or others have some balance. isis and isil really doesn't. >> andrew, if we look at their goals, they're detracting from seizing the rest of the country by spending time around sin sinjar mountain and cutting off areas of escape. are they doing counter counterintuitive things by going after groups like this? >> that's absolutely right. they've earned a reputation of being the most brutal organizations on earth. they have a long list of enemies, and i think they're antagonizing the very people they need to governor, which are the people who live in the territories that they control. yes, absolutely you're right.

>> what is going on here? does this body ill for other groups, certainly in syria which has a patchwork of religious minorities if isil strengthens it's grip in that part of the region j isil made it's way in the world by being brutal, by being extremely brutal. if you cross they will they'll kill you. they'll kill you publicly. they want everybody to know that. it's a strategy. also they insist that everybody think like them. they're extremely fanatical in their views and they go to impose them. there is, however, some strategy in what they do. so, for instance, they now hold the province of raqq a a and is this territory inhabited by kurdish, and other groups.

i think part of what was going on they wanted to ethnically cleanse this population so as to strengthen their communications between raqqa and mosul. in fact, what now has happened is that the kurdish repost has cut them off. >> sebastian, quickly before we go to a break, is this worse than other persecution that the yazidis have faced in their long history? >> the oral history they account for as much as 72 genocides. they recall them in the pre- pre-ottoman ages. what we can say about the recent attacks, which is surely one of the largest, but it only attacks particular group. the sinjar yazidi. >> we can talk more about what the significance of that is, and why sinjar is so important.

we'll be back with more "inside story" after a quick break. while isil targets women subjecting them to kidnap, rape and other abuses, the yazidi men have taken up arms fighting for their lives and their way of life. regional minorities and the military struggle next. stay with us.

>> welcome back to "inside story" on al jazeera america. i'm ray ray suarez. the islamic state sprang from the full mutt from the syria civil war. shias, alawites, yazidis now convinced they have no future in a region where isil's self-appointed caliph is now in charge.

how do the concessionnal lines match up with the territory lines in this struggle? >> so far isil has succeeded in making alliances with disgruntled sunni populations who felt oppressed by the baath government or shiite government in iraq. and convinced them that they could liberate them. that has not turned out very well for the people who made that deal, and i would be surprised if this is a long-term proposition. but in those rare cases where isil has managed to conquer some territory, which were inhabited by minorities, they've been, as your guest said, almost genocidal. they insist on forced conversion, or this is why they're kidnapping the girls they impregnate them with the kids and bring them up to be fanatics. >> you were telling us about a long history of persecution, but

people are not 1,000 years old. they're only however hold they are, 30, 40, 50 years old. they only remember growing up in a life in their region. what was life like for groups like the yazidis during saddam hussein's time? before the invasion of iraq. >> the yazidis was always circled around the notion of persecution. they're considered the lowest rank on the social order and social hierarchy. and they experienced attacks from all kinds of sides. and for them it was not a matter of finding allies to survive in the area. sinjar is the ancestral homeland. to leave sinjar and give up sinjar is a very difficult

decision. >> we see numbers defendeling as a percentage. i mean, heck, even christians inside turkey are a dwindling minority. what future is there no matter how this war ends? in a future iraq that is either heavily run by sunnies with the kurds pulling off in their own northern enclave, is a place like sinjar ever going to be safe for them again? >> that's a very good question. if we compare similar stories that happened in yazidis and neighboring areas, for example turkey, where we used to have a sizable yazidi community, but the entire community left turkey in the '80s and '90s to germany and received a group asylum.

there are some yazidis who feel like leaving sin air and not going back because going back to an area that is deepen trenched in hostile territory, and you can't trust your neighbors. when i talked to mayacy my yazidi friends and colleagues there is no trust but where to leave is the question. >> i don't know how the numbers work out, but if you have read-maiden mys of anybody who is not going to convert or leave, does that have an impact on the military calculation both in syria and iraq? >> absolutely. if you look at the situation on the ground now as compared to what it was like four or five months ago, it's certainly better. the fighting of the peshmerga, the airstrikes, the yazidis

taking up arms to protect their own villages are all proof that isil is not invincible. we can push against them, and they will retreat. it takes time. it's bloody. it's hard, but i think militarily the advantages on the iraqi--the peshmerga side, the real test, the central question, though, is in a crisis the iraqis fight together, and they'll come together, the shia, the kurds, the government, and the minorities, but the question is will that last? will unified iraq emerge out of this crisis? i think that's really an unanswerable question right now. >> we'll take one more break on inside story. when we come back hazard the really-documented cruelty of the isil government helped galvanize support. has this self-proclaimed state overplayed its hand? maiden mys it can't

defeat? that's "inside story." stay with us. >> i'm joie chen i'm the host of america tonight, we're revolutionary because we're going back to doing best of storytelling. we have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we haven't heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism

>> you're watching "inside story" on al jazeera america.

i'm ray suarez. the islamic state fight to create a new country from syria and the role ethnic minorities have played in the struggle of hearts and minds on and off the battlefield, how are things looking militarily for the yazidis over their long history. they've had a great reputation as fighters. are they basically becoming part of the peshmerga? the kurdish army? >> that is a request that has been made by yazidi units, particularly those who stayed on the mountain and endured the long siege, and now after being liberated by the help of the peshmerga, it would be a natural development to establish an i yazidi -only battalion, unit. >> andrew, is there a growing realization that this is going to be a long fight?

that if the united states reengages in this part of the world this is not something that is going to be over in six months, nine months or 12 months. >> ray, i think that's pretty clear. and when the president announced that we were going in, he said this is a long fight. it's going to be a tough fight. it's not going to be over. yet, we're pretty impatient. we look at the last week's news. the news this week is pretty good out of northern iraq. last week it was negative. the isis is making process in parts of anbar province. they're losing ground in others. i think in the longer term if we're patient if we and our allies can actually push isis back, it's going to take patience, and we're going to need to stake with it . >> do these actions, apart from military actions, keep the western world engaged in a way that they might not be otherwise?

>> oh, without any doubt. the humanitarian impulse here is very clear. i think strategically speaking it would be unconscionable to have let it fall, and the u.s. has swung in action to give them close air sport and try to put some spine back in the peshmerga, which has gone a little soft in the meantime. and likewise, i don't think baghdad was in danger from isil because it's mostly shiite, and people would not have put up with it, but they could have caused a lot of trouble in baghdad if they would have pushed back somewhat. this intervention is both strategic on the u.s. part, and europe's part, but also it's--it

tugs at one 's heart strings to see these girls kidnapped and thousands of people displaced. i think if the kurdistan regional government can fight isil and make it stick, the yazidi will come back to sinjar. they're a constituency i think the government will try to share some of its oil about a bonanza with them. i think they'll be able to get it back together. >> thank you all for joining us this time. this bring us to the end of this edition of inside story. please join us next time in washington. i'm ray suarez.

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