Farmers’ crop field burned in Iraq’s Yazidi Sinjar region: mayor
Smoke rises from the crop field of farmers in SInjar, northwest Iraq., June 4, 2019. Photo: SM/NRT
SINJAR, Northwest Iraq,— Farmers’ crop field was set on fire in a village in Sinjar on Tuesday, an official said.
Sinjar is home to the majority of the world’s Yazidis.
Acting Sinjar mayor Saad Hamid told NRT TV that the fire took place near Warde village in Sinjar’s sub-district of Grd Azer on Tuesday afternoon.
Up to 1,200 dunams of farmlands (296.5 acres) were burned due to the fire, according to the official.
This is the fourth time this that the farmers’ crop fields are burned in Sinjar.
Over the last several weeks, Hundreds of hectares of agricultural lands were also burned by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Kirkuk province and Makhmour and Khanaqin districts.
Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate said last week that there were 189 firing circumstances during May 5-30.
“1586.6 hectares of farmlands were torched and 41171.8 hectares were preserved,” the statement read.
In August 2014, ISIS militants attacked the Sinjar district, which was home to hundreds of thousands of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, whose syncretic religion incorporates many aspects of local faiths. Because of their beliefs, Yazidis were specifically targeted by the hardline Islamist militants for a campaign of horrific violation.
Thousands of Yazidi women were raped and murdered, with many of the survivors sold into sexual slavery and taken away to other parts of Iraq, Syria, and even further afield. Men and boys were systematically murdered, forced to work for the group, or coerced into becoming child soldiers.
It is estimated that 3,000 Yazidis were killed over a period of several days and 6,800 others were abducted.
Although several thousand Yazidis have been rescued over the last four-and-a-half years, another 3,000 remain missing.
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