News / Iraq

3,000 members of Izadi minority remain unaccounted for: Iraqi official

Saturday, 03 August 2019 5:05 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 03 August 2019 5:05 PM ]

This picture taken on April 13, 2019 in the Syrian Izadi village of Qizlajokh in the northeastern province of Hasakah shows Iraqi Izadi children rescued from Daesh waiting to board buses bound for the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. (Photo by AFP)

An Iraqi official says thousands of members of the Izadi minority remain unaccounted for ever since Daesh militants overran their hometowns in the northern part of the country in 2014.

The head of the Nineveh Provincial Council, Saydo Chato, said on Saturday that the fate of some 3,000 Izadis remains unknown, stressing that the community is an integral part of Nineveh and has been subjected to decades of genocide, systematic killing and various forms of barbarism – the most recent of which was the carnage perpetrated by the Daesh merciless group, Arabic-language Gilgamesh Press news agency reported.

Chato called on the international community to help pave the way for the return of displaced Izadis to their hometowns.

PressTV-13 displaced Izadi families return to Iraq's Sinjar

Thirteen Iraqi Izadi families have returned home in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh after four years of displacement.

He also urged Iraqi security forces to double their efforts to bring back members of the religious minority, particularly women, children and the elderly, who still remain missing.

Chato then asked world states and the United Nations to address the crimes against humanity that Daesh terrorists perpetrated in the town of Sinjar, and bring those responsible for the atrocities to account.

PressTV-Over two dozen Izadis freed from Daesh return to Iraq

Iraqi Kurdish officials have received 27 former Izadi captives of Daesh from their counterparts in Syria.

The Paris-based NGO International Federation for Human Rights said in a report on October 25 last year that foreign militants, including many of European origins, were responsible for atrocities and acts of brutality carried out by Daesh against Izadi Kurds.

PressTV-Dozen more Iraqi Izadi children reunited with families

Iraqi Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters have reunited a dozen Izadi children with their families in the country’s northern province of Nineveh.

Early last year, Iraqi security forces found a mass grave in Nineveh, which contained the bodies of dozens of Izadis believed to have been executed by Daesh terrorists when they were in control of an area there.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Etejah television network that federal police forces had made the discovery in the town of Qahtaniyah, located about 100 kilometers from Mosul, and that the mass grave contained the bodies of 70 people.

He added that security forces had handed over all the bodies to the forensic department in Mosul to be identified and returned to their relatives.