Fate of thousands of Izadis captured by Daesh still unknown: Official

An official at the Endowments and Religious Affairs Ministry of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government says more than 3,000 members of Izadi minority remain unaccounted for ever since Takfiri Daesh militants overran their hometowns in northern Iraq back in 2014.

“The fate of 3,102 Izadis remain unknown since Daesh terrorists attacked our towns and cities in mid-2014,” Khairi Bozarni said at a conference devoted to the “Izadi Genocide” in the Kurdish capital city of Erbil on Wednesday.

Bozarni added that more than 2,500 Izadi Kurds lost their lives at the hands of Daesh Takfiris, while another 6,000 – mostly women and children – were abducted.

He noted that 66 places of worship for Izadis have also been desecrated or destroyed by the terror group.

“What’s more, more than 100,000 Izadis have fled Kurdistan region and Iraq in general since the summer of 2014,” Bozarni said.

He went on to say that Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has secured the release of more than 2,000 abducted Izadis.

Bozarni also called on the international community as well as the central government in Baghdad to discover the fate of missing Izadis as soon as possible.

Earlier this year, Iraqi security forces found a mass grave in the northern province of 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.

SS