These are just a few of the groups the Islamic State has persecuted

Not too long ago, none of us had ever heard of the Islamic State. 

But in the year since they captured Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, there haven't been too many news days where they haven't received a mention. Their terrifying rise has been a headache for world leaders — and heartbreaking for those that have had to flee their homes because of caliphate's brutality. 

It seems like everyone is a target under the Islamic State: They've carried out gruesome public executions for crimes ranging from adultery to apostasy. it's dangerous to be a woman, a child, and, perhaps especially, a person who doesn't subscribe to the Islamic State's radical version of Sunni Islam. Shia Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and others all face a choice: convert or die.

In the areas that it controls — which now spans large parts of Syria and Iraq — IS militants rule by fear and intimidation, but some groups have more to fear than others.

Here are some of the groups that IS militants have persecuted:

Women

Women have suffered some of the worst oppression under the heavy hand of the Islamic State. The extremists have introduced a strict female dress code — full veil, loose-fitting abaya and gloves — and forbade women to leave their homes without a male escort. As seen in this video obtained by the BBC, women who violate the rules risk a public chastisement, or worse, by religious police patrolling the streets. But it gets much worse than that. Women are also being kidnapped from their homes and forced into “jihad marriages” with IS militants who rape them.

Children

Children are a key target. Islamic State militants have reportedly kidnapped as many as 500 children from the Iraqi provinces of Anbar and Diyala in recent weeks, and local authorities fear the youngsters could be turned into suicide bombers or soldiers in the fight against Iraqi forces and pro-government militias. They have reason to be worried. The Islamic State has previously released videos claiming to show children participating in military and ideological training camps in Iraq and Syria, firing guns and watching grisly executions as they are prepared for battle. Many children have also been murdered. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said in February it had received reports of "several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive."

Christians

Long-suffering Iraqi Christians have endured decades of persecution, but the Islamic State could be the biggest threat to their existence yet.  Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled their homes after the IS militants overran their towns and cities and then gave them three grim choices:  Convert to Islam, pay a hefty "protection tax," or "face the sword." Understandably many Christians chose a fourth option: Pack their belongings and flee. Some went abroad, while others sought shelter within Iraq in villages like Al-Qosh and cities like Erbil — but not before they were robbed of everything at IS checkpoints. 

Yazidis

Thousands of Yazidis, who follow a pre-Islamic faith linked to Zoroastrianism and are considered pagans by the Islamic State, were also forced from their homes last August after the extremist militants took over the northern district of Sinjar and ordered members of the minority sect to convert to Islam or die. Over the following weeks, Yazidi men were executed or imprisoned en masse, while women were tortured and raped by their captors and sold into sexual slavery. Tens of thousands of fleeing Yazidis were trapped on Mount Sinjar without food or water until US airstrikes, humanitarian airdrops and Kurdish fighters enabled most of them to escape.  

Journalists

The high rate of journalist kidnappings and killings has turned Syria into the most dangerous country in the world for members of the press. Iraq is catching up. “More than 20” Iraqi journalists and media workers are currently missing or being held by the Islamic State in Iraq, Oday Hatem, the former head of Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq, wrote in a blog in April.  Based on conversations with the families, colleagues of the missing journalists and press freedom groups, Hatem, who himself was forced to flee the country in 2014, said he “could confirm that out of 24 cases 18 journalists are still detained by the militant group. In three cases there were conflicting reports about whether the journalists had been killed by Islamic State. And there are three missing journalists unaccounted for.”

Prisoners

Even prisoners have been targeted by the Islamic State. Shortly after taking control of Mosul last June, the extremist militants massacred 600 mostly Shia Muslim inmates at the Badoush Prison, Human Rights Watch said in a report based on eye-witness accounts. IS “separated the Sunni from the Shia inmates, then forced the Shia men to kneel along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot them with assault rifles and automatic weapons.”

Sunni Muslims

Sunni Muslims might belong to the same religion as the Islamic State militants, but that has not shielded them from the violence raging across the country. While some Sunni tribesmen have sided with the extremists, others have fought back — and paid a heavy price. But it’s not just the Islamic State that Sunni civilians have had to worry about. Sunnis have also been targeted by the US-trained and backed Iraqi government forces and their ruthless Shia militia groups.            

Shia Muslims

Shia Muslims have been high on the list of targets for the Islamic State, particularly during their hyper-violent campaign to establish a caliphate across Syria and Iraq. One of the most horrifying examples of their brutality was the massacre last summer of as many as 1,700 Shia soldiers from the former US Camp Speicher military base near the Iraqi city of Tikrit. The group posted shocking images online showing hundreds of soldiers and security officers being machine gunned to death. In April, just days after the Islamic State was driven out of the city, forensic teams began the gruesome task of digging up a dozen mass graves believed to hold the bodies of the soldiers.