Remains Of 25 Ezidi ISIS Victims Returned To Families In Shingal

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - After more than six years in Baghdad’s Forensic Medicine Department, the remains of 25 Ezidi victims killed by ISIS are returning to Shingal (Sinjar) on Thursday, bringing another group of victims home more than a decade after the genocide while hundreds of other remains and missing-person cases remain unresolved.

Most of the victims were from Kocho village, one of the communities devastated when ISIS overran Shingal and surrounding areas in 2014. They were between 12 and 70 years old.

The remains are being handed over to relatives during a special ceremony at the Shingal memorial monument before being buried with dignity, marking the ninth group of identified victims returned to their families.

The remains were kept at Baghdad’s Forensic Medicine Department for more than six years while forensic examinations and identification procedures were completed.

According to a Kurdistan24 correspondent in Mosul, several ambulances have been prepared at the Mosul Forensic Medicine Department to transport the remains. The victims will be received at the Shingal memorial monument before being laid to rest.

The return represents only a small part of the continuing effort to account for those killed or disappeared after ISIS attacked Shingal on Aug. 3, 2014.

For families, however, identification can bring an end to years of uncertainty, allowing relatives to hold funerals and establish graves for loved ones whose fate had remained unknown.

The 25 victims whose remains are being returned are Haji Murad Basmi, Hawi Khalaf Qasim, Dakhil Omar Sido, Amer Khidr Mato, Ghazala Abbas Qasim, Washiya Bashar Jara, Hanifa Khalaf Sharo, Jian Osman Zafo, Nouri Sharaf Ibrahim, Misri Hamidan Murad, Shirin Qasim Khdeida, Nisan Khalaf Ali, Adnan Hadi Hussein Aziz, Haji Khdeida Khalaf, Barjan Khalaf Murad, Sahar Khashan Rasho, Alaa Barakat Elias, Marwan Ismail Sido, Abbas Elias Qasim, Rafi Hadi Hussein, Joko Murad Bashar, Khidr Mishko Nasser, Hawas Habibo Kato, Sirwan Barjas Suleiman, and Hussein Barjas Suleiman.

The latest figures show that 96 mass graves have been identified in Shingal. So far, 78 have been exhumed, while 18 others are awaiting excavation.

A total of 857 sets of remains have been recovered from the graves. The identities of 296 victims have been established, while 536 sets of remains remain at Baghdad’s Forensic Medicine Department.

The figures underline the scale of the continuing effort. Even as identified victims are gradually returned to their families, hundreds of remains are still awaiting identification and dozens of graves remain to be opened.

An earlier Kurdistan Regional Government announcement in August recorded 93 mass and individual graves in Shingal and surrounding areas and said DNA testing had identified 296 victims whose remains had been returned to their families. The latest figures separately record 96 mass graves alongside dozens of individual burial sites.

The return of the remains comes 12 years after ISIS targeted the Ezidi religious community in Shingal and surrounding areas.

The attack included the execution of civilians, abduction of families, enslavement of women and girls, forced religious conversions, and the destruction of religious sites as ISIS sought to erase the Ezidi community and its heritage.

In an Aug. 3, 2026, announcement, the Kurdistan Regional Government said 5,000 Ezidis had been killed and 6,417 abducted during the genocide. Of those abducted, 3,595 had been rescued, while 2,526 remained missing.

More than 10 countries have formally recognized the atrocities against the Ezidis as genocide.

At the August 2026 commemoration, Ezidi leader Mir Hazim Tahsin Beg called for reconstruction, compensation, and effective protection for the community, while survivors continued to seek answers about relatives who remain missing.

For many families, the search is not limited to recovering remains. More than a decade after the attack, survivors continue to live with the consequences of captivity, while many displaced Ezidi families have yet to permanently return to Shingal.

The Kurdistan Regional Government said in August that livelihoods, shelter, protection, and essential services remained among the principal challenges facing displaced Ezidis.

Damaged homes, weak services, competing armed groups, and unresolved administrative arrangements have also complicated recovery and the return of displaced families.

The identification of remains is one part of a much wider effort to determine the fate of those who disappeared during the ISIS assault.

The latest mass-grave figures show both progress and the scale of the remaining task: 78 graves have been exhumed, 857 sets of remains recovered, and 296 victims identified, while 18 mass graves await excavation and 536 sets of remains remain in Baghdad.

The fate of more than 1,200 Ezidi women was also still unresolved nearly 12 years after the genocide, according to figures previously reported by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

For families whose relatives remain missing, each newly identified victim represents progress in a search that has continued for more than a decade.

The October 2020 Shingal Agreement between Baghdad and Erbil was intended to reorganize security and administration in Shingal, recruit local security personnel, remove unauthorized armed groups, and advance reconstruction. Its implementation has remained limited.

The unresolved security and administrative situation remains closely connected to the return of displaced families, whose ability to rebuild their lives in Shingal depends on security, functioning institutions, reconstruction, and basic services.

Criminal accountability is another unresolved part of the genocide’s aftermath.

A proposed Iraqi Law on Combating International Crimes had completed legal review but still required parliamentary approval, according to reporting in August. The legislation was described as a means of allowing prosecutions for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity rather than relying solely on terrorism charges, while also establishing a compensation fund.

Ezidi survivors and community leaders have continued to demand the recovery of missing relatives, identification of the dead, compensation, reconstruction, and prosecutions that recognize the full nature of the crimes committed against their community.

On Thursday, the 25 families receiving their relatives’ remains will be able to bury people whose remains spent years undergoing identification before returning to Shingal.

Their return brings another chapter of the long search to a close for those families, but the wider process remains unfinished.

Eighteen mass graves are still awaiting excavation, hundreds of sets of remains remain unidentified, and thousands of Ezidis killed or abducted during the ISIS genocide continue to shape the community’s unresolved search for justice, recovery, and answers.