Betrayal of Yazidis Stokes Iraqi Fears of Return to 2006 Sectarian Horrors

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Azam Ahmed

Bahia Mamo, 13, in a refugee camp in northern Iraq. “We left our homes and they took
Yazidi girls,” she said of ISIS militants. “I am crying because of everything we left behind.”

IRAQ---Some Iraqis fear that the plight of the Yazidis, thousands of whom are missing or have been massacred by ISIS fighters, could be a harbinger of a return to the sectarian nightmare of 2006 and 2007, when neighbors turned against neighbors. As ISIS has advanced, more than 400,000 Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion with roots in Muslim and Zoroastrian traditions, have been forced to flee their enclaves. “I called my closest friend after we fled, an Arab man who owned a shop in our village,” said a Yazidi man who identified himself only as Haso, declining to give his first name out of fear of reprisal. “When I asked him what he was doing, he told me he was looking for Yazidis to kill.” [link]