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Iraq: Dozens of homeless Kurdish Yazidi families in
Sinjar after bombing
15.8.2007 |
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August
15, 2007
Mosul, Iraq, -- Several mud houses were
completely destroyed by the bombing attacks that
ripped through northwestern Iraq's district of
Sinjar on Tuesday, leaving dozens of Kurdish
families homeless and others trapped under the
wreckage, according to eyewitnesses.
"Dozens of people were killed or injured and rescue
operations are continuing," Amjad Khalil, an
eyewitness, said.
"Words cannot express what happened; it was a
disaster that killed and injured hundreds of
people," said Qassim Hassan, who was in the company
of a critically injured child in an emergency
hospital in Duhok city in Kurdistan region.
"The blast brought destruction to an area of 400
square meters," another eyewitness, who refused to
have his name mentioned, said.
Ilias Hamad, a 32-year old man with a leg injury
said, "Three members of my family were injured and
my house was destroyed. I do not know where to go."
Sinjar's mayor announced earlier that the
bombings' casualties had risen to 500 dead
and 275 wounded, while a curfew was imposed on the
city.
Sinjar district, 120 km to the northwest of Mosul,
is inhabited by Kurdish Yazidis, a religious sect
whose followers are generally situated in northern
Iraq outside autonomous Kurdistan region. Some
350,000 Yazidis live in villages around Mosul, 405
km north of Baghdad.
Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds and most live
near Mosul, with smaller communities in Armenia,
Georgia, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey. They
number around 500,000 individuals in total, but
estimates of their population size vary, partially
due to the Yazidi tradition of secrecy about their
religious beliefs.
VOI
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