One Year After Massacre, Iraq’s Yazidis a Broken People
LALISH, IRAQ—
A year ago, on August 3, Islamic State militants stormed the homelands of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, killing hundreds of men and enslaving thousands of women.
The scenes of desperate Yazidi families crowding on the top of Sinjar mountain without food or water spurred Kurdish fighters into action, an emergency airlift and the start of the U.S. airstrike campaign against the Islamic State Sunni extremists.
Yazidis who survived that massacre are scattered around the region. About a two hour drive north of the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, amid dusty, rocky hills is Lalish, the site of a famous Yazidi shrine. On this Sunday, a day before the anniversary, Yazidi families are walking into the shrine grounds in 50-degree (Celsius) heat to meet, pray and wash in the holy waters of their temple.
'There was no food, no water'
Murad Aloo, is one of them. Wearing all black, he walks around the temple grounds, stopping at the stand selling water and ice cream. But he finds little peace here. The images of what happened 12 months ago is seared into his mind.
Yazidi boy stands at the entrance of an underground rivulet inside the
Lalish temple. Yazidis, including those who survived the IS attack
against them in August 2014, come here to meet and enjoy each other's
company. Lalish, Iraq, July 31, 2015. (Photo - S. Behn/VOA)
