Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraq village of Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority, officials and a witness said Saturday, according to the Associated Press, Al Arabiya reported

"They committed a massacre against the people," Hoshyar Zebari, a senior Iraqi official, said, citing sources from the region and intelligence information.

"Around 80 of them have been killed," he added.

A Kurdish official in Iraq's Dohuk province gave a similar death toll, while a witness said he saw a large number of bodies in the village.

The Yazidi minority in Iraq is an ethno-religious community that practices an ancient religion linked to Zoroastrianism.