The genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, which began with the 2014 Sinjar massacre, led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their ancestral lands in Sinjar. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Sunni fundamentalist majority-Arab Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and thousands of Yazidi men were killed.[29] Five thousand Yazidi civilians were killed[30] during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign"[31][32] being carried out by ISIL in Northern Iraq. The genocide began following the withdrawal of the KRG's Peshmerga militia, which left the Yazidis defenseless.[33][34] Among the reasons for the Peshmerga's retreat was an unwillingness to fight fellow Muslims in the defence of Yazidis.[35] ISIL's persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and led to another American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL.