A/HRC/28/18 community, whose identity is based on its religious beliefs. If confirmed, such conduct may amount to genocide. Numerous Yezidi witnesses provided credible and consistent accounts of separate incidents and attacks, detailing how they were forced to convert to Islam or face death. 18. At the beginning of August 2014, a series of systematic and widespread attacks took place against a backdrop of ISIL incursions into the Ninewa plains and Yezidi-populated cities and villages. Interviews with numerous victims and witnesses from Al-Adnaniya, AlQahtaniyah, Barah, Bazwaya, Dogore, Gogjali, Hardan, Khanasor, Kocho, Qani, Sharaf adDin, Sinjar city, Solagh, Tel Banat, Tel Qasab and Zummar point to a pattern whereby members of ISIL systematically separated the men from the women and young children; the men were subsequently taken away to nearby ditches and summarily executed. Some victims and witnesses added that they had been asked to convert to Islam and that the men who refused were killed, while in other instances even the men who converted were summarily executed. Men who managed to survive such executions, largely through being shielded by the bodies of other victims, relayed their accounts to the investigation team. Women and children who were held captive near execution sites also witnessed some executions. In some instances, villages were entirely emptied of their Yezidi population. 19. For instance, on 3 August, in Qani village (Sinjar) at least 80 men were killed in a single incident. The mission interviewed survivors. One of them recounted how they were rounded up and taken to a nearby ditch, where ISIL fighters opened fire on them. He added that at least 50 members of his extended family had been killed. In Kocho, at least 700 men were killed in August. A survivor of one of the several Kocho village (Sinjar) massacres recounted how, around 11 August, Yezidi men who refused to convert were separated from the women and then taken to a farm. An ISIL fighter told them “you will see now what will happen to you, you pagans and peacock worshippers”. Although the villagers were initially given assurances that they would be freed once they handed over their possessions, ISIL divided the men in four groups of 15. The Yezidi men were ordered to lie face down on the ground; they were filmed by ISIL fighters before being shot several times. Survivors informed the mission that some residents from surrounding areas assisted ISIL in perpetrating those killings. Witnesses consistently reported that ISIL fighters had acted upon direct orders they received via telephone. 20. ISIL fighters abducted Yezidis on a mass scale and detained many for months. For instance, a group of 196 disabled Yezidis, including elderly and ill persons and children, were held captive in Mosul and Tel Afar and only released in January 2015. Many victims were forced to convert to Islam during their captivity. Around 3,000 persons, mainly Yezidis, allegedly remain in ISIL captivity. Further investigation is needed to establish the precise number of those who continue to be held by ISIL and the numbers killed, estimated to be in the thousands.5 (b) Attacks against Christians 21. Although perceived as the “People of the Book”,6 a classification that grants them a certain protection in comparison with other ethnic and religious groups, Christians suffered forced displacement and deprivation of property. By 6 August, an estimated 200,000 Christians and members of other ethnic and religious groups had fled from Al-Hamdaniya, Bashiqa, Bartella, Tel Keif and other towns and villages in the Ninewa plains before they 5 6 6 It is difficult to determine the exact number, particularly given that many of those who are listed as missing were killed. Civil society organizations shared lists containing the names of thousands of alleged victims with the investigation mission. Ahl al-Kitab in Islam includes Christians, Jews and Sabea-Mandeans.