Latest news with #Yazidi-majority
Shafaq News
11-05-2025
- Shafaq News
Witness to horror: Yazidi survivor's harrowing ISIS testimony
Shafaq News/ An Iraqi court heard the testimony of a Yazidi woman survivor as part of international legal proceedings against a suspected ISIS member, the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation announced on Sunday. The woman testified via video link on May 7 before the Karkh First Investigation Court in Baghdad in a case involving Murat Deringani, an alleged ISIS fighter accused of war crimes and severe human rights violations during his time with the group in Iraq and Syria. Judicial records identified the witness as a victim of kidnapping, enslavement, and sexual abuse by a militant known as 'Abu Yahya al-Almani,' who faces additional charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. In August 2014, ISIS militants overran the Yazidi-majority district of Sinjar in northern Iraq, killing thousands and capturing women and girls. The United Nations later recognized the attack as genocide. Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the area in November 2015. However, according to the US State Department, over 2,600 Yazidi women and girls remain missing, while efforts to identify victims from mass graves continue. Fewer than 700 sets of remains have been exhumed, and only 243 have been identified and returned to families. Iraqi authorities have documented 93 mass graves attributed to ISIS crimes against Yazidis, while the United Nations estimates that more than 200 mass graves left by ISIS across Iraq could contain the remains of up to 12,000 individuals.
Shafaq News
13-02-2025
- Shafaq News
Iraq hands over remains of 32 Yazidis killed by ISIS
Shafaq News/ Iraq has handed over the remains of 32 Yazidi victims to their families after completing identity verification through forensic examinations, a government official said on Thursday. 'The remains belong to victims from Sinjar, a Yazidi-majority district that was overrun by Islamic State militants in 2014,' Zaid Ali Abbas, Director General of the Forensic Medicine Department, announced at a joint press conference in Baghdad. Al-Sheikh Naif, a representative of the Yazidi victims' families said that efforts were underway to establish a memorial in Sinjar to honor the victims. "We are coordinating with relevant authorities to expedite the process of delivering DNA test samples of other victims' families to Baghdad and making the results public," he said. In turn, Diaa Karim, head of the Mass Graves Affairs and Protection Directorate, revealed that additional remains would be handed over in future batches as forensic identification continues. Addressing the broader issue of mass graves, Karim said forensic teams annually announce discoveries based on completed databases. "Excavations begin as soon as a mass grave is identified," he added. According to Karim, Iraq has documented 125 mass grave sites linked to ISIS, pointing out that every site could contain many mass graves. 'So far, authorities have opened 134 mass graves, bringing the total to 151, including 64 in Sinjar alone. 29 sites remain to be examined in Nineveh province.'
