Local media outlet Rudaw reported Sunday that witnesses had pointed out one of the graves to officials the day before. The witnesses told them the grave, near the Sinjar Technical Institute, contained the remains of 78 women between the ages of 40 and 80 years old.
The gruesome discovery was followed by the finding of another grave Sunday 10 miles west of Sinjar believed to contain the bodies of about 50 men. Both graves have yet to be excavated.
The alleged graves are probably of Yazidis, which is a religion/ethnic group that particularly draws the ire of the Islamic State death cult*. The Kurds went after the place partially because it has a certain amount of symbolic value (the Yazidis refugee crisis that triggered an American response in 2014 came from this region), but largely because it’s a key strategic point between IS’s territory in what used to be Syria and its territory in what used to be Iraq. Whether or not it becomes a key strategic point in what will eventually become Kurdistan is still up in the air; certainly the Kurds aren’t done establishing their territory. Certainly taking this town makes it easier for the Kurds to retake Mosul…
Moe Lane
*IS ironically considers Yazidis to be devil-worshipers; I say ‘ironically’ because while it is unfashionable in these terribly secularist times to suggest that the diabolical might be somehow real, what IS has done to traditional Islamic beliefs**…
**Please be careful: adherents of those aforementioned traditional beliefs were the ones who fought and died to liberate Sinjar and its remaining Yazidi population. As I’ve said before, you may very well believe that the Kurds are not worshiping our God – but they’re certainly not worshiping Islamic State’s, either. I’m sure that the Almighty has some way of straightening this all out, so I’ll let Him worry about it, with my compliments.
No worries, Moe. I do not know enough about the Kurds or the Yazidi to have a clear idea about their spiritual beliefs but I do know that they do not auction off young girls as sex slaves and that is enough to know that they are the good guys in this sectarian brawl.
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ISIS – by their acts you will know them. Spawn of Lucifer, I think.
“I’m sure that the Almighty has some way of straightening this all out, so I’ll let Him worry about it, with my compliments.”
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I’m thinking that the Old Testament fellow ought to be the one to take up that request. “Death of Senacherib” perhaps?
I forget who said “God will know his own,” but it sure applies here.
Arnaud Amalric, during the Albigensian Crusade, one of the less…excusable military campaigns of history.
When I think of the Kurds, why do I keep thinking about the brave Calormene in Lewis’ The Last Battle that went through the door?