More than 200 Yazidi prisoners have been set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Islamic State captivity, Kurdish military has said today. The freed prisoners said that they had been led to believe they were being led to their execution, but instead, were piled onto a minibus that drove them to peshmerga positions. The Yazidis, made up of women, children and the elderly, are said to be in poor health and bearing signs of abuse and neglect. Fear: The 216 prisoners, including 40 children, believed they were being led to their execution, but instead, were piled onto minibuses that drove them to a handover southwest of Kirkuk . Released: An elderly man is being cared for by peshmerga troops while a young girl cries as she is being offered water by a Kuridsh soldier after their release . Relief: A newly released Yazidi woman reacts upon her arrival in the village of Himera, southwest of Kirkuk, after she and hundreds of other Yazidis had been held captive since last summer . Praise be: Two elderly women give thanks for being set free. Some of the Yazidis are said to be in poor health and bearing signs of abuse and neglect . Free at last: A mother hugs here young child in celebration at being released. The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care . Saved: This elderly Yazidi woman was one of the lucky ones to be released. No reason was given for the decision by ISIS . The 216 prisoners have been held captive in the Islamic State since last summer when militants attacked their villages in the area around Sinjar in northwestern Iraq. General Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said that about 40 children are among those released, while the rest were elderly, some of whom were too exhausted and disoriented to speak. No reason was given for the release of the prisoners, which took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad. The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care. One elderly woman said she had been captured by the . insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in . the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, . killing hundreds and taking thousands captive. Emotional scenes: Once the Yazidi prisoners, made up of women, children and the elderly, realised they were not being executed but freed, many broke down by the roadside . Newly released members of the Yazidi minority, including one girl with an injured leg, wait for medical help after being set free by ISIS . Saved: An officer from the Kurdish forces carries an elderly Yazidi woman at the checkpoint in near Kirkuk . A woman splashes her face with water given out by a Kurdish peshmerga soldier. The 216 Yazidis piled onto a minibus that then drove them to peshmerga positions . Yazidi families embrace after ISIS let them go. About 40 children were among those released . A man shields his face from the hot sun. Yazidi community leaders were there to receive the freed women, children, elderly and disabled and an ambulance was on standby . The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had told her . son and two young daughters to run away as the militants closed . in, but stayed behind herself because she was unwell and did not . want to slow them down. 'I had lost hope of seeing my children again, but today it . has happened,' she said as they embraced her and wept. It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to . release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but . the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under . similarly mysterious circumstances. Yazidi activists say many remain in the hands of Islamic State, which has often subjected women to rape or sexual slavery . Iraqi Yazidis are seen at the entrance of a checkpoint in Kirkuk after their release by the Islamic State militants near Kirkuk, northern Iraq . The 216 prisoners have been held captive in the Islamic State since last summer when militants attacked their villages in the area around Sinjar in northwestern Iraq . The United Nations said last month that the Islamic State may have committed genocide against the minority . Some of the Yazidis said they had been held in the Islamic . State stronghold of Tel Afar most of the time, but in the days . leading up to their release, they were moved from one town to . another in Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate. Yazidi community leaders were . there to receive them and an ambulance was on standby. Yazidi activists say many remain in the hands of Islamic . State, which has often subjected women to rape or sexual . slavery. The United Nations said last month that the Islamic State may . have committed genocide against the minority. The Yazidis are an ancient, predominantly Kurdish people who . follow their own religion derived from Islam, Christianity and . Zoroastrianism.
Group released in northern Iraq made up of 40 children, women and elderly . Were piled onto a minibus that then drove them to peshmerga positions . Prisoners spent nearly a year in Isis captivity, Kurdish military has said . No explanation has been given as to why the 216 Yazidis were released .