Charlotta Turner, professor in Analytical Chemistry, received a text message from her student Firas Jumaah in 2014 telling her to to assume he would not finish his thesis if he had not returned within a week. 
 
 He and his family were, he told her, hiding out in a disused bleach factory, with the sounds of gunshots from Isis warriors roaming the town reverberating around them. Jumaah, who is from Iraq, is a member of the ethno-religious group Yazidi hated by Isis. 
 
 "I had no hope then at all," Jumaah told Lund's University Magazine LUM . "I was desperate. I just wanted to tell my supervisor what was happening. I had no idea that a professor would be able to do anything for us." 
 
 Jumaah had voluntarily entered the war zone after his wife had rung him to say that Isis fighters had taken over the next-door village, killing all the men and taking the women into slavery. 
 
 "My wife was totally panicking. Everyone was shocked at how IS were behaving," he said. "I took the first plane there to be with them. What sort of life would I have if anything had happened to them there?" 
 
 But Turner was not willing to leave her student to die without trying to do something. 
 
 "What was happening was completely unacceptable," she told LUM. "I got so angry that IS was pushing itself into our world, exposing my doctoral student and his family to this, and disrupting the research." 
 
 She contacted the university's then security chief Per Gustafson. 
 
 "It was almost as if he'd been waiting for this kind of mission," Turner said. "Per Gustafson said that we had a transport and security deal which stretched over the whole world." 
 
 Over a few days of intense activity, Gustafson hired a security company which then arranged the rescue operation. A few days later two Landcruisers carrying four heavily-armed mercenaries roared into the area where Jumaah was hiding, and sped him away to Erbil Airport together with his wife and two small children. "I have never felt so privileged, so VIP," Jumaah told LUM. "But at the same time I felt like a coward as I left my mother and sisters behind me." 
 
 Firas Jumaah and his former PHD supervisor Charlotta Turner. Photo: Kennet Ruona 
 
 Luckily the rest of his family survived Isis occupation, while Jumaah back in Sweden completed his PhD and now works for a pharmaceuticals company in Malmö. The family has almost finished paying the university back for the rescue operation. 
 
 "It was a unique event. As far as I know no other university has ever been involved in anything like it," Gustafson said. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 By Yuliya Talmazan 
 
 On an August day four years ago, Swedish chemistry professor Charlotta Turner received a surprising text message that would change the life of one of her graduate students. 
 
 Firas Jumaah had returned to his native Iraq days earlier, fearing for the safety of his wife and two children who had traveled there for a family wedding. He had initially stayed behind to complete his lab work at Lund University in southern Sweden. 
 
 While with his family in Iraq, Jumaah sent his supervisor a text message asking her to remove him from the doctoral program if he wasn’t back in Sweden within a week. 
 
 Firas Jumaah Charlotta Turner 
 
 Surprised by the message, Turner, 48, called Jumaah. It was then that she found out that his family was facing a life-and-death situation. 
 
 “He was very sad and crying,” Turner told NBC News. “I could hear that the situation was hopeless and they had to flee.” 
 
 Jumaah's family had returned to visit their home country of Iraq before violence began. But while he was there the so-called Islamic State conducted a deadly offensive in northern Iraq. 
 
 On Aug. 3, ISIS attacked the city of Sinjar near to where Jumaah’s family was, massacring and enslaving thousands of Yazidis — a religious minority to which Jumaah and his family belong. 
 
 “He realized one day that things were getting really serious there,” Turner said. “He was very worried and he just left.” 
 
 Jumaah’s plan was to go in and bring his family back to Sweden, but when he arrived, most borders were closed because of a mass exodus of refugees. He also couldn’t go back to the airport. So they waited. 
 
 But the situation only grew worse because ISIS kept advancing — and, at one point, came within 12 miles of their house. 
 
 Over the phone, Jumaah told Turner that he and his family were preparing to go into hiding in Iraq’s northern mountains. She told him not to give up and started looking for ways to rescue the family. 
 
 “It was very spontaneous,” she said. “For me, it was obvious that I should help and bring them home.” 
 
 She approached the university’s security chief at the time, who found a company that could go in with armed men and rescue Jumaah and his family. ||||| Story highlights U.S. begins aid drops to Iraqi town surrounded by ISIS, the Pentagon says 
 
 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIS has sold Yazidi girls and women 
 
 About 300 have been abducted, the rights group says 
 
 Syria monitors: ISIS sees them as "captives of the spoils of war with the infidels" 
 
 The United States says it has carried out airstrikes and dropped humanitarian aid in the Iraqi town of Amerli to protect an ethnic minority that one official says faces the threat of an "imminent massacre." 
 
 The town of Amerli, which has been besieged by ISIS fighters, is home to many of Iraq's Shiite Turkmen. 
 
 To help the trapped people, the United States has carried out humanitarian airdrops, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said late Saturday. 
 
 Australia, France and the UK also participated in the aid drop. 
 
 The U.S. military conducted "coordinated airstrikes" against ISIS targets as part of an effort to support the humanitarian operation, Kirby said. 
 
 Video released by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense was strikingly similar to the scenes of the dire situation faced by the Yazidis, who were trapped on the Sinjar Mountains by ISIS, earlier this month. Dozens of people crowded helicopters, hoping to be rescued. Scores more awaited the arrival life-saving supplies in the scorching summer sun. 
 
 ISIS fighters have surrounded Amerli , 70 miles north of Baquba, since since mid-June. The town's fewer than 20,000 residents are without power. 
 
 "Residents are enduring harsh living conditions with severe food and water shortages, and a complete absence of medical services -- and there are fears of a possible imminent massacre," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said last week. 
 
 ISIS has called the Shiite Turkmen heretics and vowed to push them out. 
 
 Turkmen are descendants of a Turkic-speaking, traditionally nomadic people, who share culture ties with Turkey. There are Sunni and Shiite Turkmen in Iraq, and they account for up to 3% of Iraq's population. 
 
 Turkmen have been subjected to violence before at the hands of Sunni extremists. 
 
 A truck bomb explosion in 2008 Amerli killed more than 100 people -- an attack that was considered one of the single deadliest attacks of the Iraq War at the time. 
 
 Report: ISIS selling Yazidi women in Syria 
 
 Hundreds of Yazidi women abducted by ISIS have either been sold or handed out to members of the Sunni extremist group, according to an organization that monitors the crisis. 
 
 In the past few weeks, ISIS has "distributed" to its rank and file about 300 female members of the persecuted religious minority, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group aligned with the opposition in Syria. 
 
 Those women were initially kidnapped in Iraq before being taken to Syria. 
 
 In ISIS' eyes, the girls and women are "captives of the spoils of war with the infidels," the Syria monitors said, claiming that some had converted to Islam so ISIS fighters can marry them. 
 
 SOHR says it could confirm at least 27 cases in which women were "sold and married" for about $1,000 each to ISIS militants in Aleppo and Raqqa suburbs and Al-Hassakah. 
 
 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Instantly made homeless, tens of thousands of Yazidi families have sought shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan after being chased from their homes, often at gunpoint, by ISIS. Kurdish photographer Warzer Jaff spent a week documenting the exodus of the Yazidis from their ancient homeland. This portrait shows the family of former soldier Hajji Khalaf, 28, from Sinjar. With him is daughter Alisa, 3; son Ezel, 4; wife Thawra, 24; and daughter Alifa, 6. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – "I am fascinated with the deep sadness in their eyes," Jaff says. "You don't see one single happy face." Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – A mother shows the identity card that belonged to her 20-year-old daughter Baran, who was killed by shrapnel while pulling a child to safety. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – "I don't want to live with Arabs anymore. They take our land, they kidnap our woman. And they kill us, why should I live with them?" asked a 75-year-old Yazidi named Ali Khalid. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Nova Sharif, a 19-year-old high school student from Sinjar, now living in the Nawroz refugee camp in Syria. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – This 6-day-old girl was born on Sinjar Mountain. Her mother might name her "Hajar," meaning migrant or as the family interpreted it, "Exile." Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Baby Hafar with her mother, Nariman Barkath, 20; her husband, Khairi Khalaf, 22; and Khairi's little sister. Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Dalia Jalal, 12, seen in the Nawroz refugee camp in Syria. Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – A rare moment of childlike innocence: "I like the bright colors and the flowers," said this girl, after eyeing the long dress. Hide Caption 9 of 9 
 
 JUST WATCHED Waves of refugees flee to northern Iraq Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Waves of refugees flee to northern Iraq 02:40 
 
 JUST WATCHED Yazidi refugees desperate for help Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Yazidi refugees desperate for help 02:51 
 
 JUST WATCHED ISIS massacre survivors speak out Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ISIS massacre survivors speak out 03:18 
 
 Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled to Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq as ISIS fighters made deadly advances on their villages. They became trapped on the mountain, leading to air drops of water, food and other supplies, and eventually airstrikes to dislodge ISIS from the area. 
 
 Peshmerga forces managed to help most of the Yazidis escape into Iraqi Kurdistan. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama declared an end to the ISIS siege at Mount Sinjar on August 15, citing the success of the airstrikes. 
 
 Since early August, nearly 122,600 people in the Sinjar district -- mostly Yazidis -- have taken refuge in Kurdistan, according to USAID 
 
 A U.N. report warned of increasing kidnappings by armed groups in Mosul and the area of Mount Sinjar. 
 
 The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that some of the victims reportedly have been forced to convert to Islam and have been trafficked by the terrorist groups inside and outside of Iraq. 
 
 A number of villages in Sinjar remain besieged by ISIS and other armed groups, the refugee agency reported. 
 
 ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, was previously referred to as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 Attacks across Iraq 
 
 At least three Iraqi soldiers were killed Saturday in a suicide car bombing south of Iraq's capital, police said, dealing a blow to the military in that area for a second straight day as government forces fight ISIS militants across the country. 
 
 Seven other soldiers were injured in the attack, which happened at an army checkpoint in Yousifiya, a predominantly Sunni Muslim area about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Baghdad, police in Baghdad said. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear who conducted the bombing. 
 
 The blast came a day after nine Iraqi soldiers and Shiite Muslim militiamen were killed in clashes with suspected ISIS militants in nearby Mahmoudiya, a Sunni Muslim community about 29 kilometers south of Baghdad. 
 
 During the height of Iraq's insurgency last decade following a U.S.-led invasion, Yousifiya and Mahmoudiya, along with the town of Latifiya, made up the Sunni area known as the "Triangle of Death" because it was an al Qaeda stronghold and a lair for criminals. 
 
 Iraqi forces under a Shiite-led regime, as well as ethnic Kurdish forces, have been battling ISIS, which this year took over large portions of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria for what it calls its new caliphate. 
 
 Well before ISIS made gains, Iraq was beset for years by sectarian violence, with Sunnis feeling politically marginalized under a Shiite-led government since the U.S.-led ouster of longtime leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. 
 
 More U.S. airstrikes 
 
 U.S. forces conducted more airstrikes against ISIS targets near the Mosul on Saturday, according to the U.S. military, destroying a militant fighting position and armed vehicle. 
 
 "The strikes were conducted under the authority to support Iraqi security force and Kurdish defense force operations, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts," U.S. Central Command said in a press release. 
 
 CENTCOM said it has carried 115 strikes across Iraq.
– Four years ago, a chemistry professor got a text from her grad student: If I'm not back in a week, cut me from the doctoral program. Charlotta Turner called him right away: "He was very sad and crying,” the 48-year-old prof at Lund University in Sweden tells NBC News. "I could hear that the situation was hopeless and they had to flee." The student, Firas Jumaah, was visiting his native Iraq to help family members during a brutal 2014 ISIS attack targeting Yazidis—a religious minority that includes his family. The terror group had just enslaved and massacred Yazidis by the thousand in nearby Sinjar. Now Jumaah and family were planning to flee to the mountains. "I had no hope at all," says Jumaah, per the Local. "I was desperate." But Turner took action. She spoke to Lund University's then-security chief, who contacted a company that sent mercenaries into northern Iraq. Only days later, four armed mercs on two Landcruisers blazed into the place where Jumaah was hiding, and rushed him to Erbil Airport with his wife and two young kids. "I have never felt so privileged, so VIP," he says. "But at the same time I felt like a coward as I left my mother and sisters behind me." Seeing his colleagues back in Sweden, he was speechless: "I just cried," he says. Yet Jumaah finished his PhD and found work at a Malmo pharmaceuticals company, and his family survived. The bill: roughly 60,000 kroner ($6,613), which his family has nearly finished paying. “If they told me to pay 200,000 kronor, I would,” says Jumaah. (The UN is finding fresh ISIS horrors.)