Free Republic

The impoverished Yazidi community survived ISIS genocidal attacks but has been targeted repeatedly by Turkey since 2017. Turkey again carried out a targeted assassination of Yazidi members of a far-left group in Sinjar in northern Iraq on Wednesday, according to local reports. It is one of several airstrikes Turkey has carried out in the area where members of the Yazidi minority live.  The impoverished Yazidi community survived ISIS genocidal attacks but have now been targeted repeatedly by Turkey since 2017, including a Turkish invasion of Afrin in 2018 that led to ethnic-cleansing of Yazidi villages and a Turkish attack with...

GERSHIN, Iraq — A group of Yazidi women and children reunited with their families in Iraq Saturday after five years of captivity at the hands of the Islamic State group, hugging and kissing relatives in emotional scenes that underscored their yearslong ordeal and that of their devastated community. Elated families met their loved ones at a rural truck stop on the road between Sinjar and Dohuk, tossing candy in the air like confetti, the women ululating with joy. The 18 returning children, aged 10 to 15, appeared weary and at times uneasy with the attention of the media and officials....

The incident occurs after a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday. ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish warplanes have conducted airstrikes in the Yezidi (Ezidi)-populated city of Shingal in northern Iraq; sources told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday. According to the sources, there were some airstrikes to the west of Baraa village, located close to the border with Syria. Snip- In April 2017, Turkish airstrikes supposedly targeting the PKK-affiliated YBS killed five Peshmerga soldiers and wounded nine others, as well as causing extensive damage to the area, resulting in condemnation from...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – US forces have reached on the top of Mount Sinjar (Shingal) to establish a new a military base, a Kurdish Ezidi official said on Friday. “Today, 15 military vehicles of US troops arrived on top of Mount Shingal and stationed themselves near Mira peak on the mountain,” Jalal Khalo, deputy mayor in Shingal, told Kurdistan 24. The US forces are preparing to build a military base on the mountain, Khalo added. Mount Shingal is one of the most strategic locations in Iraq, lying near the border with Syria and 125 km west of Mosul. The Kurdish...

On August 3, 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Yezidis of Sinjar in Iraq’s Nineveh province. Thousands of Yezidis were massacred and many others abducted, while more than half a million fled for their lives. Three years later, the conditions that led to ISIS’s rise and the failure to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity against the Yezidis, Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities—including the collapse of local governance and security—have not been addressed. The successful political reconstruction of Iraq and Kurdistan depends on the ability to ensure justice and fair treatment for the region’s most vulnerable populations. The...

The announcement of a tripartite alliance "Yezidi, Assyrian, Turkoman" demands a special province for minorities in Iraq Twilight News / announced Aesideon and Assyrians and Turkmen in Iraq on Sunday for a tripartite alliance combines minorities within Iraq Resume management linked to the federal government in Baghdad. Under the slogan "a sure guarantee for the stability of minorities in Iraq Mesopotamia region," "Top Yezidi Council and independent organization enforcement Turkmens and the Organization of Mesopotamia" announced "tri-national alliance combines minorities", and demanded the coalition "province of Mesopotamia, which will include three provinces, namely, (Sinjar and Tal Afar and Nineveh Plain)...

Yazidi civilians have taken up arms in the Khanasor neighbourhood of Shingal after clashes with Peshmerga and Yazidi forces. Clashes erupted between peshmerga forces allied to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of the Kurdish Regional Government and Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in Khanasor, a neigbourhood to the west of Mosul on Friday morning.After more than an hour of fighting, in which one YBS fighter has been killed and at least 7 from both sides have been injured, clashes have stopped. Both sides accused one another for the eruption of fighting.Kom News briefly spoke to Kurdish Policy co-founder Kamal Chomani...

Obama calls them JVers – tell that to these girls and their families in between rounds of golf. Stand with us against this on Sunday. Click going here. Invite your friends. This is all according to Islamic law (sharia). “Prosperous are the believers who in their prayers are humble and from idle talk turn away and at almsgiving are active and guard their private parts save from their wives and what their right hands own then being not blameworthy.” (Quran 23:1-6) Those whom their “right hands own” (Quran 4:3, 4:24, 33:50) are slaves, and inextricable from the concept of Islamic...