refugees stranded in the Sinjar Mountains. On 10 August, the United Kingdom also began airdropping humanitarian aid in northern Iraq. Civilian casualties The ISIL capture of Sinjar on 3 August was accompanied by a massacre of thousands of Yazidi men, the selling of women into slavery, and 200,000 civilians fleeing Sinjar, of whom 50,000 fled to Mount Sinjar. ISIL ordered the Yazidi minority in the area to convert to Islam, pay jizyah, or face death. This prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes not only in Sinjar city but in many other villages; for example, 300 Yazidi families fled the villages of Koja, Hatimiya and Qaboshi. The UN reported in October 2014 that ISIL, "sweeping" through Iraqi territory inhabited by Yazidis in August, had gunned down 5,000 Yazidi male civilians in a series of massacres and detained 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women to be sold as slaves or given to jihadists. On 7 August, the UN reported that since 2 August 200,000 new refugees had been seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north of Iraq from ISIL. 100,000 Christians, 25% of Iraq's Christianity, fled Bakhdida (Qaraqosh) and neighbouring villages and towns in the Nineveh Governorate after ISIL's invasion on 7 August, leaving all their property behind, many of them fleeing to Kurdistan Region. According to local officials, this August ISIL advance nearly purged northwestern Iraq of most of its Christian (Assyrian) population. See also 2012–2013 Iraqi protests 2014 Eastern Syria offensive References External links Iraq updates – Institute for the Study of War Conflicts in 2014 2014 in Iraqi Kurdistan Military operations of the Iraqi Civil War in 2014 Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving the Peshmerga Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving the United States Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving Hezbollah Battles involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraqi Kurdistan Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving the PKK