Yazidi woman freed from Gaza after decade in captivity
Beirut, Lebanon Reuters A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq a decade ago was freed from Gaza this week in a secret operation months in the making that involved Israel, the United States and Iraq, officials said. The woman is a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority mostly found in Iraq […]
Essay: Islamic State remains a potent threat five years after its military defeat
BUSRA NISA SARAC, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at Islamic State as it is today…
Iraq’s Yazidis hope a new village will prompt survivors of a 2014 Islamic State massacre to return
Kocho, Iraq AP Ten years ago, their village in Iraq’s Sinjar region was decimated by Islamic State militants. Yazidi men and boys were separated and massacred, Yazidi women and children were abducted, many raped or taken as slaves. Now the survivors are coming back to Kocho, where Yazidi community leaders on Thursday announced plans for […]
Essay: Islamic State’s genocide was not limited to killing and enslaving Yazidis, Christians and other communities − it also erased their heritage
Iraq scholar ALDA BENJAMEN, in an article first published on The Conversation, writes about how, as Yazidis and Christians continue to suffer marginalisation in Iraq, they are also facing the loss of “intangible heritage” including prayers, songs and historic narratives…
The closure of camps in Iraq housing Yazidis displaced by IS attacks is postponed, an official says
Irbil, Iraq AP The Iraqi Government has postponed an order to clear out camps in the country’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region that house thousands of people who fled when the Islamic State group seized their home areas a decade ago, officials said Tuesday. Earlier this year, Baghdad ordered the camps to be closed by 30th July […]
US carries out strike in Iraq as regional tensions worsen
Baghdad, Iraq/Washington DC, US Reuters The United States on Tuesday carried out a strike in Iraq in self defence, US officials told Reuters, as regional tensions rose after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that Israel said killed Hezbollah’s most senior commander. Iraqi police and medical sources said the strike inside a base south of Baghdad […]
Iraq: Ten years on, many Yazidis uprooted by Islamic State onslaught struggle to find stable homes
ABBY SEWELL and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, of Associated Press, report on the ongoing impact the Islamic State’s assault a decade ago is having on Yazidi communities…
Iraq eyes drawdown of US-led forces starting September, sources say
Baghdad, Iraq Reuters Iraq wants troops from a US-led military coalition to begin withdrawing in September and to formally end the coalition’s work by September, 2025, four Iraqi sources said, with some US forces likely to remain in a newly negotiated advisory capacity. The Iraqi position is being discussed with US officials in Washington this […]
Essay: The Yazidi genocide devastated Iraq’s community 10 years ago – but the roots of the prejudice that fuelled it were much deeper
In an article first published on The Conversation, GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR, author of ‘Liminal Minorities’, looks at the historic marginalisation and discrimination of the Yazidis in Iraq…
Off-the-books: Kurdish oil smuggling to Iran flourishes
TIMOUR AZHARI, of Reuters, reports on the booming black market oil business…