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On May 1 and 2, intense fighting broke out between the Iraqi Army and Yazidi fighters affiliated with the Kurdish rebel group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Sinjar region of northwestern Iraq. The fighting displaced thousands of Yazidis for the second time, as many as had recently resettled in the area after fleeing the Islamic State group in 2014.
The Yazidis are a Kurmanji-speaking minority from the Sinjar region of Iraq. They follow a monotheistic religion that has its origins in Zoroastrianism, that is, it is based on the teachings of the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster.
The Iraqi Army wants to enforce an agreement signed between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan that provides for the withdrawal of Yazidi and PKK fighters from the Sinjar region. But the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), a Yazidi militia created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, do not want to withdraw and accuse Baghdad of wanting to take over their region.
On the night of May 1, the Iraqi Army finally launched an offensive to push back Yazidi fighters, some of whom had taken up positions in civilian areas in villages near Mount Sinjar.
When fighting broke out on May 2, Ferhad* was at his uncle’s house in Sinun village. He fled with his family to neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan.
“I called one of my friends and he told me that the Iraqi Army was attacking the Sinjar Resistance Units with tanks and helicopters. People were terrified. We fled by car, on the way I saw many other families heading to the Sinjar mountains and villages that were not affected by the fighting. We were 22 people in the vehicle. We are headed to a refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan,” says Ferhad.
After the attack, some 10,000 displaced people flooded into camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. Many of the newly displaced had already been forced to live in these camps once after fleeing the Islamic State group in 2014.
* Name protected at the request of the Source
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