Tag Archives: Yazidis

Saad Hussein, a 42-year-old Yazidi Iraqi, is one of the last in the northern region of Nineveh producing the anise-flavoured spirit, arak, from local dates. Forced to flee his home town of Bashiqa, close to Mosul, when it fell to Islamic State in 2014, he returned after the defeat and …

Intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces on Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa in Syria are causing a “staggering loss of civilian life”, United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led …

By John Davison for Reuters | BASHIQA, IRAQ | For the first time since Islamic State militants swept into Bashiqa two years ago forcing him to flee, 61-year-old Barakat has finally found work – on Sunday he will be coming back to help clear debris from the destruction wrought upon …

THE LEVANT NEWS EXCLUSIVE – By Jassim Muhammad* — The American “Wall Street Journal” has mentioned that ransom monies collected by Extremist groups in the Middle East, North Africa, and USA are estimated at $120 million from 2012 to 2014 and that Yemen’s al Qaeda branch alone has collected at …

Reuters – IRBIL: A mass grave containing the remains of at least 16 Yazidis was unearthed in northern Iraq Friday as the atrocities committed by ISIS against the religious minority gradually come to light. The grave in the northwestern district of Zumar is the second to be discovered this week. …

Reuters – The Yazidi family mourned her death, assuming she had been killed by Islamic State militants or exposure to the blistering summer sun in northwest Iraq, but 15-year-old Suad Shaker Qassem was still alive. Over the weekend, she was released along with around 200 elderly, disabled and infirm Yazidis …

THE LEVANT – By Matthew Barber – The plight of thousands of Yazidi women, kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) during its August 3 attack on Iraq’s Sinjar mountains and in the following weeks, has received some media attention, but most people are unaware of just how far-reaching this disastrous …

THE LEVANT – David Cameron is under pressure to recall parliament amid growing unrest at the humanitarian crisis engulfing Iraq. With more reports of minority Christians and Yazidis being slaughtered by Islamic State extremists in the north of the country, Tory and Labour figures have insisted the Commons needs to debate possible military action. …