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Islamic State releases more than 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq
Source: Reuters
World | Wed Apr 8, 2015 12:29pm EDT
Islamic State releases more than 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq
KIRKUK, IRAQ
(Reuters) - More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed on Wednesday by Islamic State militants who had been holding them captive since overruning their villages in northwestern Iraq last summer.
A Reuters reporter saw the group of 216 people, which included two Christians, handed over to Kurdish forces near the city of Kirkuk. Some were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.
One elderly woman said she had been captured by the insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, killing hundreds and taking thousands captive.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under similarly mysterious circumstances.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Islamic State releases more than 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq
KIRKUK, IRAQ
(Reuters) - More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed on Wednesday by Islamic State militants who had been holding them captive since overruning their villages in northwestern Iraq last summer.
A Reuters reporter saw the group of 216 people, which included two Christians, handed over to Kurdish forces near the city of Kirkuk. Some were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.
One elderly woman said she had been captured by the insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, killing hundreds and taking thousands captive.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under similarly mysterious circumstances.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/08/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-yazidis-idUSKBN0MZ19220150408