Among those threatened by the advance of the Islamic State are thousands of members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority, trapped in mountains in the northwest of the country.<br /><br />The Islamic State has threatened to kill more than 300 families unless they convert to Islam, according to a Yazidi politician and witnesses in the area. <br /><br />The families, situated in the villages of Koja, Hatmiya and Qaboshi, are surrounded militants who have captured large swathes of northern Iraq since June.
