[FoxNews] They witnessed the slaughter of their families on Mount Sinjar, and then were forced by ISIS into sexual slavery. Now the "Sun Ladies" are ready to fight - for veangeance as well as survival.Some 2,000 Yazidi women who were captured in the brutal August 2014 attack on their mountain stronghold have escaped and have taken up arms against their former tormentors. Driven by the fresh memories of unspeakable atrocities and the survival of their people, hundreds have signed up to fight the black-clad terrorist army.
"Now we are defending ourselves from the evil; we are defending all the minorities in the region," Capt. Khatoon Khider told FoxNews.com from the unit's makeshift base in Duhok, Iraq. "We will do whatever is asked of us."
Khider is one of 123 Yazidi women who have undergone training and taken their place alongside the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, as they skirmish almost daily with ISIS and prepare for a looming assault on the terrorist army's Iraqi base in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
. The women range in age from 17 to 37, and there are another 500 who are awaiting training.
Khider had no experience with weapons or combat when she approached the Peshmerga senior command and proposed the idea of a specialized all-female Yazidi force after having survived the assault on Mount Sinjar. She hopes that in forming the force, the women will be able to protect themselves and inspire other minority groups to follow suit.
"Our elite force is a model for other women in the region," she said. "We want to thank all the other countries who help us in this difficult time, we want everyone to take up weapons and know how to protect themselves from the evil."
The women willfully stepped into the line of fire as a support force to the Peshmerga on Nov. 13, the day the Kurdish forces took back their hometowns and villages from ISIS occupation. The newly formed unit engaged in direct combat and later helped clear streets and buildings rigged with explosives.
As with the Christians, Kurds and Iraqi military, they know the imminent battle to retake Mosul will be the real test. Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul is the terrorist group's regional base. Most of the Yazidi women who escaped ISIS were held in Mosul and can help provide valuable intelligence, as well as boots on the ground. And fighting to free those left behind provides added motivation.
"We have a lot of our women in Mosul being held as slaves," Khider said. "Their families are waiting for them. We are waiting for them. The liberation might help bring them home."
But one prospect frightens the Yazidi women as they prepare to fight ISIS. Yazidi boys kidnapped from Mount Sinjar have been drugged and brainwashed, and could now be fighting their mothers and sisters under the black flag of ISIS.
"Now there will be terrorist Yazidis, something that never used to be," Khider added. "But we have many missions left. We will do whatever is needed."