Large number of Ezidis trapped in Tal Afar, thousands flee as offensive begins

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A Yezidi (Ezidi) member of the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday called on military leaders to take “every measure,” during the offensive to retake Tal Afar from the Islamic State (IS), to protect Ezidi women and children believed to be held in the town.

Vian Dakhil, the Kurdish Ezidi representative in Iraq’s Parliament, said many Ezidis, notably women and children, are still being kept captive in IS-held territories, including Tal Afar and Hawija in Iraq, and Raqqa and Deir al-Zor in Syria.

“Leaders of military and security forces should be concerned with the presence of a large number of abducted Ezidis trapped in Tal Afar and its surrounding areas and the need to rescue them as soon as possible, separate from the outpour of displaced people from the city,” said Dakhil in a statement.

Despite over 3,000 having been rescued over the past three years, thousands of Ezidis are still missing since the militant group emerged in northern Iraq in 2014 carrying out genocide against the ethnoreligious minority group in the Ezidi-majority city of Sinjar (Shingal).

Dakhil added she feared for the existence of Ezidi children, “who have been kidnapped or purchased and whose names, identities and religious affiliation might have been forcibly changed,” as the minority group was told to convert to Islam or die.

Dakhil urged security forces to check the identification papers of displaced people or residents of the areas in and around Tal Afar once they are liberated.

“Do not allow Ezidi abductees to be smuggled into other areas or displacement camps,” she stated.

The battle to liberate Tal Afar, a Turkmen-dominated town west of Mosul, began in the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 20.

Tal Afar is the militant group’s last strategic stronghold in the Nineveh province.

The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration on Sunday announced thousands of civilians are already fleeing the town as Iraqi forces advance.

Tens of thousands of people have been received by field teams in the area over the past two weeks.

Most of them are being sent to camps south of Mosul, and several others fled toward the western side of the city. A corridor to allow civilians to escape has been established.

Nearly 200,000 people, mostly Turkmen, lived in Tal Afar before it fell to IS in June 2014.

Some 40,000 Iraqi fighters are participating in the offensive, which will be backed by the US-led coalition airstrikes, two months after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in Mosul following a grueling nine-month long campaign.

Iraqi forces have already made significant gains on the first day of the operations, retaking the villages of Ibtisha, al-Alam, Khafaja, Halabya al-Ulya, and Marzef east of Tal Afar.

They have also liberated Abra al-Najjar, Abra Hanash, al-Abara al-Kabera, and al-Abara al-Saghera to the west, according to Iraqi military commander Abdul Amir Rashid al-Yarallah.

According to Iraqi and US military officials, about 2,000 IS militants are holed up in Tal Afar.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany