Former Islamic State sex slaves are taking up arms to rescue other women held captive by the terror group.
Around 500 Yazidis have joined an all-female brigade of the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq. Known as the Force of the Sun Ladies, they hope to participate in the imminent assault on IS-held Mosul and liberate the estimated 3,500 women held there.
An additional 123 Yazidi women have already completed their training, brigade leader Captain Khatoon Khider told Fox News. Some of these participated in a successful Peshmerga counter-offensive to re-take Kurdish towns under IS occupation last November.
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At least 7,500 Yazidi women are estimated to have been sold into slavery by IS as they captured vast swathes of northern Iraq, where the majority of the world's 650,000 Yazidis live.
Yazidis have been subjected to especial persecution at the hands of IS militants, who believe the ancient religion is a form of devil-worship. Thousands of men and women have been executed, many for refusing to convert to Islam, and the campaign of terror has been referred to as genocidal.
Khider was one of the 40,000 Yazidis who fled into the Sinjar mountains to escape the IS advance in August 2014. After suffering hunger and dehydration, they were finally able to leave their stronghold when Peshmerga troops and paramilitaries from the Kurdistan Workers' Party drove back IS forces.
Despite having no military experience, Khider approached Peshmerga commanders with the idea of a special taskforce of Yazidi women.
"Whenever a war wages, our women end up as the victims," she said. "After all that has happened to us Yazidis, we are no longer afraid."
She added: "We have a lot of our women in Mosul being held as slaves. Their families are waiting for them. We are waiting for them. The liberation might help bring them home."
