Remembering August 3: Day of Shingal Massacre

Kurdistan 11:57 AM - 2024-08-03

Yazidi women on the day of the massacre.

On August 3rd, 2014, Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists launched a vicious attack on Shingal (Sinjar), the mainland of the Yazidis, and a disputed town in northern Iraq, killing thousands of Yazidi men and abducting women and children to later be forced into slavery.

The attack also led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the community. Most of them fled to the Kurdistan Region, while others resettled to neighboring countries in the region or Western states.

Others remained stranded in the war zone, where they later went through horrific atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the extremist group for years. ISIS militants forced women and girls into sexual slavery, kidnapped their children, forced religious conversions, executed scores of men, and abused, sold, and trafficked women and girls across the areas they controlled in Iraq and Syria.

According to the United Nations, 5,000 Yazidi men died in the massacre. The terrorists have also kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women and teenage girls. 

ISIS gained control of one-third of Iraq in 2014 until 2017 when Iraq announced regaining control of Nineveh, Anbar, Saladin, and parts of Kirkuk and Diyala. 

According to unofficial sources, the terrorists massacred more than 3,200 Kurdish Yazidis and kidnapped about 7,000 Yazidis, mostly girls, women and children, some of whom are still missing.

The PUK formed a detachment

During the displacement of the Yazidis to Mount Shingal, a group of Peshmerga soldiers, who were all from the PUK, stayed in close proximity. Their primary responsibility was to protect the people stranded on the mountain from terrorist attacks until they could be rescued. The PUK took a brave position and established multiple units, which were strategically positioned around Shingal. Their objective was to fully liberate the displaced individuals on Mount Sinjar. Over 100 PUK Peshmergas perished while defending the front line, bravely sacrificing their lives to safeguard the Yezidis.

ISIS dressed in Kurdish clothes

During the occupation of Sinjar by ISIS, the terrorists employed a new strategy to deceive both the Yezidi Kurds of Sinjar and the Peshmerga forces. Their strategy involved strolling across the neighbourhood while dressed in traditional Kurdish attire. The objective was to manipulate and misguide the Yezidi Kurds and the Peshmergas in order to deceive them during the conflict. Consequently, the terrorists successfully captured numerous Kurdish individuals and compelled them to undergo religious conversion to Islam.

The Yazidis have the oldest religion in Iraq

The Yazidis have historically been the predominant demographic in Shingal, being the oldest religious community in Iraq, with a population ranging from 600,000 to 650,000 individuals. Over the course of history, there have been a total of 73 instances of mass exterminations, with the most recent one being carried out by ISIS.

Indeterminate inquiry

Following the incidents, the President of the Kurdistan Region at that time established a committee to probe the capture of Shingal. However, even after a decade, the committee has failed to furnish any details, despite the identification of 30 Peshmerga military officers who stand accused of the takeover of Sinjar.

Nadia Murad... A bitter story of crimes against humanity
Nadia Murad recounts a bitter and painful story after the Shingal fall and represents all Yazidi girls and women who are being persecuted by ISIS for years. They were being raped, hurt, and marketed far from all religious and human values.

Nadia, the Yazidis ambassador, is a Yazidi girl kidnapped by ISIS terrorist groups in August 2014 along with hundreds of other girls and women. She remained with the group for three months before surviving with help from an Iraqi family. During her testimony to the UN Security Council, with a heavy heart and eyes filled with tears, she spoke of all the atrocities that she and the Yazidi women and girls went through. 

Escape of the force!

Nadia said: "We heard that Mosul was captured on the news, but we never believed that ISIS would reach us, especially when we were in a remote village, but ISIS came and the force that was supposed to protect us ran away, so we tried to run, but we were not successful. Our village was occupied on the 15th of the month under the supervision of an ISIS leader, who was called Abu Hamza. We were then transferred to Kocho village, where we were imprisoned in a school, a two-story school, girls and women in the top floor, and men in the bottom floor."

"ISIS terrorists were asking men to become Muslims, and anyone who refused to accept would be transferred and then killed. We heard the sound of gunshots from the killing of the men," said Nadia. 

"They took all of our mobile phones and the gold we had with us, then transported 150 girls by two cars. They began trying to rape us in the cars. They took us to a remote place where there were some other girls kidnapped. We asked them what they were doing to us, and they said, "You will be asked for marriage, and if you refuse, you will be raped", Some of the girls were transferred to Syria, and the others were kept in Iraq," she added.

Selling the Yazidi girls

Nadia further recounted the events, saying: "The gunmen came to the school where we were imprisoned, chose one between five girls and then took them to another room and gave them a body examination, and if they didn't like her, they would have changed her with another girl. I had three other sisters with me, and a person who was about 40 years old came to choose me, but he chose another girl instead, and then another man came with guards. His name was Salman, he chose me and took me to his house, where he asked me to become a Muslim. I refused and said: "Firstly I want my mother whom you kidnapped." Then they took me to another place and Salman raped me, and two days later they took me to a Mosul court where a person read Quran and said: "Salman she is halal to you, then they gave my name, a sum of money, and my pictures to the court to be ready for anyone who wants to take me. "

"I went to Salman's house and stayed there for one night and the next night we went to his uncle's house, where they were constantly raping me," she continued.

Nadia also said: "They treated our bodies as a property, they rent us and sold us. The prices were between 400,000 Iraqi dinars to 800 US dollars." 

Nadia's escape

Nadia continued her story and said: "After that, they decided to give me to a man from Hamdania. A driver of Salman who was ordered to transport me raped me on the way, but when he got off, I was able to run and get to a house, they agreed to hide me and help me, but in return for some money, so I contacted my brother in Kirkuk to get me the money and stayed there for 17 days. They didn't do anything, they just looked at me and then issued me an ID so that I could be seen as his wife so ISIS wouldn't recognize us, and so I reached Kirkuk."

I hope all that all girls will be saved, especially some of them who are only 7 years old,
said Nadia in conclusion.

"I hope I get information about my mother who has been kidnapped since that day and I have no information on her and 80 more women and girls who I don't know if they are alive or dead because they were transported in groups but we heard the sounds of gunshots during their transport," she added.

Nadia's story is one of many more stories of women and girls whose fates are yet to be revealed and brought to light.



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