Persecution Of Yazidis Is Genocide, Clinton Says

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said that Islamic State violence against Iraqi Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East is genocide.

"I think I was asked this a couple months ago, and I said that term carries with it legal import, it is a very important concept and label for behavior that deserves that name," Clinton said answering a question at a town hall in Berlin, New Hampshire.

"I am now sure we have enough evidence, what is happening is genocide deliberately aimed at destroying lives and wiping out the existence of Christians and other religious minorities," Clinton said.

Islamic State has targeted and killed members of the Yazidi religion, one of the oldest in Iraq, along with Christians and other religious minorities in the region it controls in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech)