Paul Wood reports: The Yazidi religious minority community in Iraq says 3,500 of its women and girls are still being held by the so-called Islamic State (IS), many being used as sex slaves. A few have managed to escape and here tell their harrowing stories.

One day in August, Hannan woke to find her family frantically packing. She was taken aback: she had not realised the jihadists calling themselves “the Islamic State” were so close.

Outside, the main street in her hometown of Sinjar was choked. Her family joined other Yazidis “running and crying”, bullets flying overhead, she says.

Rain drums on the tent as she tells me her story, nervously twisting her fingers.

“Hannan” is not her real name. None of the former captives I spoke to could bear to be identified. Hannan is 18 and wants to be a nurse, a future almost snatched away by IS. [Continue reading…]