Friday, August 05, 2016

ISIS massacred the Yazidis two year ago

YAZIDI WATCH: Yazidis Mark Second Anniversary of Islamic State Massacre (Kawa Omer, Sirwan Kajjo, Voice of America).
DOHUK, IRAQ/WASHINGTON—
With vigils and demands to free the enslaved, Yazidis in Iraq and throughout the world on Wednesday commemorated the second anniversary of a massacre committed by Islamic State militants in Sinjar.

At least 5,000 Yazidis, mostly men and boys, were killed during the 2014 attack on the Iraqi city. The United Nations reported Wednesday that the religious minority continues to suffer at the hands of IS.

“Two years on, over 3,200 women and children are still held by IS and are subjected to almost unimaginable violence,” the U.N. Commission for Inquiry on Syria said.

The commission was referring to the Yazidi women and girls who were taken as sexual slaves by IS militants. Most of them are being held in Raqqa, the IS de facto capital in Syria.

[...]

In November 2015, Iraqi Kurdish forces known as Peshmerga, with the help of the U.S.-led coalition, liberated Sinjar from IS militants. “I would like to express my gratitude to the coalition, which is led by the United States,” Hazim Tahsin, a Yazidi spiritual leader, told a gathering Wednesday at Lalish Temple in northern Iraq, the most sacred Yazidi site, to remember the genocide’s victims.

The city is now under Kurdish control, but many Yazidis still feel it is not safe to return to their homes. Thousands of Yazidis remain in refugee camps inside Iraq and across the Middle East.

[...]
I noted what was happening at the time here and here. Some pertinent related comments are here. For much more on the Yazidis (Yezidis), their Gnosticism-themed religion, and their tragic fate in the hands of ISIS, see here (cf. here) and follow the links.