The Islamic State publicly executed 19 women of the Yazidi community in Iraq’s Mosul city on Sunday for refusing to have sex with fighters of the terror group, local ARA News reported. They were burned alive in iron cages while hundreds of people were watching, an eyewitness said. “Nobody could do anything to save them from the brutal punishment.”

More than 3,000 Yazidi women, who are part of a Kurdish religious community, were enslaved by the Islamic State when the terror outfit took control of the town of Sinjar in August 2014, IANS reported. Some 1,800 Yazidi women and girls continue to be captive in Iraq and Syria, Kurdistan regional government officials said. The group is now preparing to face the an offensive in its Iraqi stronghold, Fallujah.