A Yazidi refugee and his two nephews have told how they had to play dead to survive after they were rounded up, forced to stand next to a ditch and shot by laughing ISIS soldiers in a massacre which killed 800.
Once ISIS overran their town last August, the Yazidis were herded into a school and their armpits were inspected.
The women and girls were put on one side of the hall, to be taken away as sex slaves, while the men were lined up on the other.
Those with underarm hair were judged to be older than ten - and old enough to be murdered.
The 'men' were then split into two groups; those willing to convert to Islam and those who wanted to remain Christians.
The Christians were told that they would be taken to the Sinjar mountains and freed.
But it was a trick – and instead they were put into trucks and taken to killing fields around the village of Kojo, northern Iraq, where they were made to stand by mass graves and executed.
Khalaf – whose name has been changed to protect his identity – told how he was one of 800 men shot at, but survived.
He was too scared to move or even breath as he laid, covered in blood from other victims, as dead bodies fell on top of him.
Khalaf’s two brothers were murdered that day, but his two nephews Kameel and Jamal, again, not their real names, lived by laying in the grave for hours while soldiers walked along checking for survivors.
If they found anyone still alive they were shot in the head to be sure they were dead.
A man lying next to Khalaf in the ditch was found by an ISIS fighter to still be breathing, so he was shot three times in the head.
Speaking from a refugee camp in Iraq, Khalaf, 42, told MailOnline: 'They [ISIS] took everybody to the big school inside Kojo. They took everything from us – telephones, money, gold.’
The jihadis ordered men and boys over the age of 10 to stand on the right and women and other children on the left.
'They tested to see if the boys had underarm hair,' he said.
The fanatics used this crude test to determine whether the Yazidi boys were old enough to be slaughtered.
In what appeared to be an act of humanity, the fighters gave around 400 men and boys standing on the right-hand side a choice - to become a Muslim or be led to Mount Sinjar where they would be set free.
'They did not say anything bad [to us],' Kameel, 32, said. 'They said if you want to stay and be a Muslim it is ok. If you want us to take you to the mountain, we will and you can leave.'
Most chose to leave and were led to trucks in groups and driven to fields outside the village.
Khalaf, his nephew Kameel, and his two brothers were in one of the first convoys and they were driven about 500 metres out of the village. It was there that they saw what ISIS had planned for them.
'They lied,' Khalaf shouted, unable to contain his anger as he recalled the terror. 'On the way there [we saw] there was a mass grave – they had prepared everything.
'They had dug the grave and set up the machines guns.'
The jihadis - some Iraqis from neighbouring towns - told their helpless captives to stand and face the ditch.
'I was first in line they started shooting at us,' Khalaf recalled. 'Then they observed if we moved, [if we did] they shot at us again.
'In our group there was about 40 of us, with me was two of my brothers and my nephew.'
Khalaf's brothers were killed during the massacre, but miraculously he managed to escape with only bruises.
Kameel - who was only a few places down the line - also survived despite being shot four times.
'I was hit with two bullets in my right hand, another in my arm and then one on my foot,' he said, showing his scars.
After the initial hail of bullets, both men were too scared 'to open their eyes' or even breathe for fear that ISIS would find out they were still alive.
'ISIS checked one man beside me,' Khalaf explained. 'They found he was breathing and shot him three times in his head.'
Meanwhile, Khalaf’s other nephew, Jamal, 31, was heading to a different killing field.
'You have to relax, we will give you water,' he recalled being told by an ISIS fighter as they drove there.
However, when he arrived he also realised what they had planned - there was a grave surrounded by ten armed jihadis ready to kill.
Jamal remembers overhearing one Arabic fighter joking: '80 or 90 Yazidis is enough for this grave.'
This time the Yazidis were forced onto their knees, before being shot down one by one with their machine guns.
'I was shot in the shoulder and the neck,' Jamal, a father-of-two, recounted. 'I fell straight into the grave. Then I was shot in my leg and my abdomen.'
Fearful, like his cousin and uncle, that ISIS would discover he was still alive, he held his breath and closed his eyes.
After 30 minutes the jihadis had left and Jamal raised his head and was confronted with a disturbing scene.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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