Kurdish forces release Ezidis in Manbij, Raqqa

KOBANI, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) – On Friday, the Kurdish forces of People’s Protection Units (YPG) allegedly released a Yezidi (Ezidi) family from Raqqa and Manbij in Syria.

The YPG leadership said in a statement released on Friday that the Kurdish Special Forces affiliated with the YPG infiltrated the city of Raqqa and released a group of captives.

“Our forces have implemented a secret, successful qualitative operation in the center of Raqqa and released a group of prisoners, including an Ezidi family of a mother and three children,” the statement said.

The statement added that the freed captives were taken to the Kurdish-held town of Kobani for further care and investigation.

Regarding the way the captives were released, a source in the YPG leadership told Kurdistan24 that such military and security secrets cannot be disclosed to the media.

The YPG representative explained that the upcoming operations may fail if IS intelligence agents, who follow their opponents’ media constantly, find out.

Additionally, about 15 Ezidi girls in a village west of Manbij were said to be released by the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground, confirmed the report without mentioning the name of the village where the Ezidi captives were kept.

In the Summer of 2014, IS captured around 5,000 Ezidis in the southern Kurdistan Region city of Sinjar (Shingal). Nearly 2,000 managed to escape or have been smuggled out of IS’ self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

IS insurgents consider the Ezidis to be ‘devil-worshippers’ and agree that killing their men and raping their women are legal acts.

The ancient Ezidi faith blends elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing Karzan Sulaivany