Nov 10, 2014

Iraqi Kurdistan: 52 Yazidis Freed by Peshmerga


The Kurdish peshmerga freed 51 Yazidi women and children on Friday, 7 November 2014. After negotiations with local Sunni Arab tribes, the Yazidi hostages were freed from their detention in the village of Zuligeya and are being transported to safety in Duhok and Zakho.  It is not yet clear if ransoms were paid to secure their release.

Below is an article published by Basenews;

On Friday night [7 November 2014], Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq freed 51 Yazidi women and children.

Ashti Kochar, commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar, told BasNews that on Friday night [7 November 2014] their forces were able to rescue 51 Kurdish Yazidi women and children from the village of Zuliqeya, south of the town of Tel Afar, southeast of Sinjar in northern Iraq.

“All the rescued women and children are currently on Mount Sinjar and we are planning to send them to Duhok and Zakho shortly,” said Kochar.

He also said that Peshmerga forces on the mountain are getting ready for a large assault on the town of Sinjar, which has been under the control of Islamic State for more than three months.

Meanwhile, a Kurdish Yazidi commander on Mount Sinjar has given BasNews details of how the 51 Yazidi women and children were rescued.

Kurdish Yazidi commander Qassim Shashou told BasNews that the Kurdistan Region has conducted limited negotiations with Sunni Arab tribes in the Sinjar and Tel Afar areas. The hope was that they would be able to convince Islamic State militants to free the captive Yazidi women and children.

He didn’t say whether the Kurdistan government paid a ransom to either the tribes or Islamic State to facilitate the release of the Yazidis.

However, last week an Iraqi Kurdish official last week said that the government has given some money to a third party, when IS militants freed more than 230 kidnapped Yazidi women and children.

Since the take over of Sinjar in August, Islamic State militants have reportedly kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women and children, with some of them sold as sex slaves in Mosul.