Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The actions of the self-declared Islamic State’s fighters against the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria constitute genocide, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday during a news conference. The Obama administration said that in 2014 the terror group trapped, killed, and enslaved thousands of Yazidi women, “selling them at auction, raping them at will and destroying the communities in which they had lived for countless generations.” He said the victims were chosen “solely for their faith” and that ISIS members “forced Christian women and girls into slavery.” Kerry said: “My purpose here today is to assert in my judgment, [ISIS] is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians, and Shiite Muslims.” Kerry’s speech marks the first time that the U.S. has declared a genocide since 2004, in the context of Darfur. On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution labeling the ISIS’s actions “genocide.”