“The [Turkish] border is our last hope. Hundreds of families started their march for their last chance of survival either by car or on foot,” Kasim Kara, Tal Afar Turkmen Front spokesman told Al-Monitor on Aug. 7, just an hour before US President Barack Obama ordered targeted airstrikes to prevent genocide and protect the civilians trapped in the Sinjar Mountains escaping the radical Islamic State (IS) militants’ threat.

With the capture of Sinjar on Aug. 3 by IS militants, hundreds of families fled to the Sinjar Mountains with only the clothes on their back, trying to escape beheading and rape of their women.

On Aug. 6, Yazidi lawmaker Feyyan Dahil brought this chilling account of terror by IS to the attention of the Iraqi parliament.

“Mr. President, we are slaughtered under the slogan of ‘No God but Allah!’ Thus far, 500 men were slaughtered,” she said. “Our women are slaughtered and sold as concubines. There is genocide against Yazidis. My family is slaughtered like the rest of the Iraqis — Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Turkmens.” She added, “What we want is support based on humanity, away from political differences. I speak here in the name of humanity. In the last 48 hours, 30,000 families have been trapped in the Sinjar Mountains without food or water. Seventy children died from thirst. I ask the Iraqi parliament to stand against the slaughter. Save us!”