Iraq's Yazidi refugees exhausted and starving

Desperate Yazidis cross the Iraq-Syria border at Feeshkhabour bridge over the Tigris River. Photo / AP

The lights of their towns, controlled by jihadists, twinkle beneath them in the moonlight. The people of the mountain can see their villages, and the headlights of the jihadi patrols snaking through the streets they have abandoned, and know they cannot return.

Small campfires light up the side of the mountain, stretching towards the Syrian border just visible in the distance, where the Yazidis eke out their lives in a desperate search for sleep, food and water.

Round the campfires a bedraggled spectacle of humanity sit making tea in empty bean cans torn in half.

As the sun rises, the sound of fighter jets can be heard. Any thought they might bring salvation disappears as they roar off. They are protecting the front lines in the Kurdish capital Erbil. The homes of these thousands of people, remnants of an ancient sect driven out by Isis (Islamic State), are lost and will not be recovered any time soon. Another day of temperatures above 37C, and too little water to drink, is beginning. Jagged rocks smashed so many of the water bottles dropped from above. A Red Crescent official estimated 40 to 50 per cent of the supplies thrown out of American air force planes were destroyed on impact.

The Yazidis' ordeal began on August 4, when Islamic State descended on the city of Sinjar and the surrounding towns and villages.

"When Islamic State came over Sinjar, when they came to ... Solah the people started to run to the caves," said Khero Gaffal, 44. "Islamic State caught some and said they wouldn't kill them. "But they put 60 people in a line and shot them one by one. They made a big hole with shovels and put them there."

It is hard to confirm the stories of mass killings and kidnap of women that have emerged from behind Isis lines. With poor communications, rumours circulate freely, and numbers are vague.

What Gaffal saw was roughly verified by a separate another family from Solah who had already escaped. "They killed my uncle," said Dakhil Samir, 35. "He was one of 48 bodies I saw in a mass grave." He said they had been shot and in some cases stabbed.

By phone, a man still hiding out in Solah described the current situation. "There are around 30 pickups here now, and Isis are searching the houses," said Hajji Badl Ali, 50. In Kojo, residents said they had been given until Friday to convert to Islam. "No one has been killed yet," said one man. But everyone was in hiding.