LALISH, Iraq: One by one, members of Iraq’s minority Yazidi community light oil lamps to mark their New Year at a sacred shrine, but for Omar Sinan the celebration cannot erase the atrocities of extremist rule.
In 2014, the Daesh group swept across swathes of Iraq, carrying out horrific violence against the Kurdish-speaking community whose non-Muslim faith the extremists considered heretical.
Daesh massacred thousands of men and abducted thousands of women and girls as sex slaves.
Tuesday night as the sun set over the Lalish stone shrine in northern Iraq, Yazidis began lighting oil lamps, 365 of them, one for each day of the year.
Hundreds came to mark the Yazidi New Year — which to the faithful commemorates the creation of the universe by angels and celebrates nature and fertility.
Six years after Iraq declared victory over Daesh, the Yazidis came to Lalish barefoot and dressed in white.
The men wore embroidered vests over their shirts while women donned traditional head coverings, featuring gold coins.
“Before, this was a time for celebration and our joy was immense. But today... we cannot forget what we have been through,” said Sinan, attending the celebration with his children.
The Yazidis follow an ancient religion that emerged in Iran more than 4,000 years ago and is rooted in Zoroastrianism. Over time it incorporated elements of Islam and Christianity.
The community was persecuted for years, including under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
When Daesh invaded Iraq in August 2014, one of their targets was Sinjar, the Yazidis’ historic home on the Nineveh Plain, in a remote corner of the country’s north.
“Ever since the genocide, there is sadness in our hearts. It won’t go away,” said Sinan, a 37-year-old mathematics teacher.
“This sadness will live in us for eternity.”
During the New Year celebration, Yazidis pay their respects at the graves of relatives, and those who can afford it slaughter a sheep and offer some of the meat to the poor.
Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad has dedicated the first Wednesday of April as a holiday for the Yazidi community.
Before Daesh marched into their villages in 2014, there were 550,000 Yazidis nationwide out of a worldwide total of 1.5 million, including in neighboring countries and the diaspora.
But after the massacres and the abductions, nearly 100,000 fled abroad, according to the United Nations. Most went to Europe, Australia and Canada to try to build new lives.
Arabic-language teacher Faleh Jomaa, 60, was among those who decided to stay in Iraq with his wife and three children, unlike his four brothers and their families who emigrated to Germany.
“The Yazidi community has suffered 74 genocides over time but it rises again each time, like plants from the depth of the Earth,” he said.
In January, Germany’s parliament recognized the 2014 massacre of Yazidi by Daesh as a “genocide,” following similar moves by parliaments in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani said “political and security measures” have yet to be adopted to allow displaced Yazidis to return to Sinjar.
In March, his government allocated $38.5 million to rebuild Sinjar and villages in the Nineveh Plain.
According to the UN migration agency, IOM, more than 200,000 Yazidis who survived Daesh brutality are still displaced living in and outside camps across Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
“The needs of displaced persons and returnees in Sinjar remain high,” the IOM said in a report in January, noting a “lack of adequate shelter and basic services... including running water, electricity, health care and education.”
Daesh extremists “destroyed around 80 percent of public infrastructure and 70 percent of civilian homes in Sinjar City and surrounding areas,” it added.
Khawla Abdou, who fled with her husband and eight daughters to Germany, chose to return home this year to mark the New Year in Lalish.
“We came to pray to God on this sacred day so that he could free our daughters who are still held by the enemy,” the 67-year-old said.
“May God hear our prayers and free our daughters. We cannot forget them and we will never forget what happened in Sinjar.”
According to the IOM, more than 2,700 Yazidis are still missing, some held by extremists.
Iraq’s Yazidis mark New Year still haunted by Daesh horrors
https://arab.news/basz8
Iraq’s Yazidis mark New Year still haunted by Daesh horrors
- Hundreds came to Lalish to mark the Yazidi New Year — which to the faithful commemorates the creation of the universe
- When Daesh invaded Iraq in August 2014, one of their targets was Sinjar, the Yazidis’ historic home on the Nineveh Plain
UAE president, king of Bahrain discuss ties in Abu Dhabi
- Several Emirati and Bahraini officials attended the meeting
- Leaders explored ways to strengthen Abu Dhabi-Manama ties in support of shared interests
LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain at his residence in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to discuss relations between the two countries.
The two leaders discussed cooperation between Manama and Abu Dhabi, exploring ways to strengthen their ties in support of shared interests and aspirations for continued progress, development and prosperity, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Several UAE officials attended the meeting, including Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy chairman of the Presidential Court for Development and Martyrs Families affairs, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy chairman of the Presidential Court for Special Affairs.
The Bahraini side included Lt. Gen. Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the national security adviser, Royal Guard commander and secretary general of the Supreme Defense Council of Bahrain, and Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the first deputy chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of the General Sports Authority of Bahrain.
Wildfires kill two in western Turkiye, little-known group claims arson attacks
- The latest casualty was a backhoe operator, Ibrahim Demir, who died while battling the flames in the Odemis district
- A group calling itself “Children of Fire” claimed responsibility
ISTANBUL: A wildfire killed a second person in Türkiye’s western Izmir province on Tuesday as blazes raged for a seventh day across several regions, while a little-known group claiming ties to Kurdish militants said it was behind dozens of arson attacks.
The latest casualty was a backhoe operator, Ibrahim Demir, who died while battling the flames in the Odemis district, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Earlier, an 81-year-old bedridden man who was home alone in the same area died when fire reached his house, marking the first death since the fires began.
A group calling itself “Children of Fire” claimed responsibility for “tens of fires across six Turkish cities”, according to a statement shared online.
The group, which is little known, says it is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and European Union. The PKK, which said in May that it was ending a 40-year insurgency and disbanding, has not commented on the claim.
Firefighters continued to battle flames with helicopters and planes dropping water over mountainous terrain in Izmir, while authorities closed some roads to the Aegean resort town of Cesme, Anadolu said.
Broadcasters showed footage of flames lining the main highway as water tankers arrived.
Türkiye, Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean are in an area scientists dub “a wildfire hotspot” — with blazes common during hot and dry summers. These have become more destructive in recent years due to a fast-changing climate.
Wildfires across Türkiye’s west have damaged around 200 homes and victims have been provided alternative accommodation, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Some 50,000 people were temporarily evacuated earlier this week from areas of fires fueled by high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds.
New fires also broke out on Thursday in the southern resort province of Antalya and in forested areas near Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest city, Anadolu said. Authorities have managed to contain several of the blazes.
US imposes fresh sanctions targeting Iran oil trade, Hezbollah
- Action targets network of companies buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil
WASHINGTON: The US imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said.
A network of companies run by Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said has been buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil since at least 2020, the department said.
“Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The US has imposed waves of sanctions on Iran’s oil exports over its nuclear program and funding of militant groups across the Middle East.
Reuters reported late last year that a fuel oil smuggling network that generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has
flourished in Iraq since 2022.
Thursday’s sanctions came after the US carried out strikes on June 22 on three Iranian nuclear sites, including its most deeply buried enrichment plant Fordow. The Pentagon said on Wednesday the strikes had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, despite a far more cautious initial assessment that had leaked to the public.
The US and Iran are expected to hold talks about its nuclear program next week in Oslo, Axios reported.
The Treasury Department also issued sanctions against several senior officials and one entity associated with the Hezbollah-controlled financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
The officials, the department said, conducted millions of dollars in transactions that ultimately benefited, but obscured, Hezbollah.
One person killed, 4 injured in Israeli airstrike on car in Beirut
- Israeli military spokesperson says the army ‘targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces’
- Israeli army forces enter Kfar Kila, the closest Lebanese town to Israel, on Thursday morning and blow up a civilian home
BEIRUT: An Israeli drone attack hit a car on Khaldeh Road in southern Beirut at about 5 p.m. on Thursday. Initial reports suggested one person was killed and at least four injured.
The drone fired two guided missiles at the vehicle, scoring direct hits. The road on which it was traveling was described as a typically busy road.
The Israeli army confirmed the attack. In a message posted on social media platform X, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said: “The Israeli army targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces on behalf of the Iranian Quds Force.”
The attack took place three days before US envoy Thomas Barrack is due visit to Beirut to receive Lebanon’s response to US disarmament proposals designed to restrict control of weapons in the country to the Lebanese state, and a day after Hezbollah reiterated its rejection of the demand.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said on Wednesday that the group “categorically rejects any efforts to disarm. We do not accept being led into humiliation, nor surrendering our land or weapons to the Israeli enemy.”
The matter of weapons is “an internal Lebanese issue that must be addressed internally, without external supervision or interference,” he added.
“The party will not submit to any external threat or pressure. No one decides for us or imposes choices on us that we do not accept. Our weapons are our legitimate and legal right to confront the Israeli occupation.”
On Thursday morning, Israeli army forces entered the southern town of Kfar Kila and blew up a civilian home. Located across the border from the Israeli settlement of Metula, Kfar Kila is the closest Lebanese town to Israel, separated only by a border fence. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army maintain a permanent presence in the area.
Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture
- He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity“
- Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court sentenced him to five years
ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced historian Mohamed Amine Belghit to five years in prison for offending national symbols, his lawyer said, after remarks questioning the existence of the native Amazigh culture.
Belghit sparked outrage in the North African country when he said in a recent interview that “the Amazigh language is an ideological project of Franco-Zionist origin,” and that “there’s no such thing as Amazigh culture.”
He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity” by targeting “symbols of the nation and the republic” as well as “disseminating hate speech,” the prosecution said at the time.
On Thursday, Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court outside the capital Algiers sentenced him to five years behind bars.
The prosecutor had requested seven years jailtime and a fine of 700,000 dinars ($5,400).
Algeria in 2016 granted official status to Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, who are also known as Berbers.
The Berber new year celebration, Yennayer, was added in 2017 to the list of national holidays.
Belghit, a university professor, is no stranger to controversies.
His remarks often cause uproar, with critics accusing him of historical revisionism and hostility toward the Amazigh people.
