Syria Kurds return 25 Yazidis freed from IS to Iraq

Syrian Kurds on Saturday repatriated 25 women and children from Iraq's Yazidi minority after freeing them during the final push against the Islamic State group, a local official said.

The US-backed fighters say they rescued some 300 Yazidi women and children during the fight to take the jihadists' last scrap of territory in eastern Syria.

"Today, we will hand over 25 people -- 10 women and 15 children -- to the Yazidi council in Sinjar," said Ziyad Rustam, an official with the Kurdish-run group Yazidi House, which reunites rescued Yazidi children with surviving relatives.

"They will be sent to their families," he told AFP.

At the Yazidi House headquarters, women wearing colourful robes collected children scampering around the compound before boarding busses bound for Sinjar, the Yazidi heartland.

"The fate of my three sisters remains unknown... I don't know anything about them," said 17-year-old Jamila Haidar.

"I hope we will be reunited soon."