Seven years on, Yazidi survivor buries father slain by Daesh

Thikran Kamiran Yousif, 22, carries a coffin with the remains of his father from the minority Yazidi sect, who was killed by Daesh militants, after they were exhumed from a mass grave, to bury them in Kojo, Iraq. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 February 2021
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Seven years on, Yazidi survivor buries father slain by Daesh

  • Thikran Kamiran Yousif was 15 when Daesh fighters slaughtered members of his village in northern Iraq
  • He joined mourners for the reburial of his father and 103 other Yazidis

KOJO, Iraq: Thikran Kamiran Yousif was 15 when Daesh fighters surrounded his village in northern Iraq, rounded up residents and slaughtered several hundred of them, including his father, brother, grandfather and aunt.
Nearly seven years later, Yousif has returned to the village of Kojo in Sinjar district for the reburial of his father and 103 other Yazidis whose bodies had been dumped by Daesh in mass graves and have now been identified by DNA samples.
Yousif, now 22 and living in Germany, is still haunted by the massacre of August 2014.

“The most painful moment was when they separated me from my father. That was the last time I saw him,” Yousif told Reuters.
“To be able, after seven years, to bury (these people) where they were killed... means so much to us,” said Yousif, whose other slain relatives have not yet been identified.
The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority who combine Zoroastrian, Christian, Manichean, Jewish and Muslim beliefs.
Daesh, which views the Yazidis as devil worshippers, killed more than 3,000, enslaved 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and displaced most of the 550,000-strong community from its ancestral home in northern Iraq.
UNITAD, the UN team investigating Daesh crimes in Iraq, has discovered more than 80 mass graves in Sinjar and has exhumed 19 of them since March 2019. It has so far identified 104 bodies by DNA samples.
“You can almost see the territory controlled by Daesh by the number of mass graves in the area,” said Karim Khan, head of the United Nations team investigating Daesh crimes in Iraq (UNITAD). Daesh is another name for Daesh.
During the year-and-a-half he spent in the hands of Daesh, Yousif was moved around several times, used as a human shield in Mosul and forced to attend an Daesh-run school, where he was indoctrinated with the group’s teachings on violent jihad.
“They taught us that killing Yazidis is allowed,” he said. “They worked on our minds.”




The funeral for 104 members of Iraq's Yazidi minoirty, who were killed by Daesh, took place on Saturday. (Reuters)


As bombings by the US-led coalition intensified over Daesh-held territory in northern Iraq, Yousif feared he would be killed or forced to fight for Daesh. In early 2016, he fled to Iraqi Kurdistan with his mother and sister.
“In the beginning it was very hard, psychologically. I was confused. I was telling myself that I should not forget what Daesh taught me,” Yousif said.
A year ago, Yousif, his mother and sister found refuge in Germany with the help of Air Bridge Iraq, a non-profit organization that advocates for the treatment and rehabilitation of Yazidi survivors of Daesh captivity outside of Iraq.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi attended an official funeral ceremony for the 104 identified Yazidi victims on Feb. 4 in Baghdad, ahead of the burials in Kojo, which remains in ruins and uninhabited.
A reparation law for female survivors of Daesh captivity is awaiting ratification by the Iraqi parliament, but it excludes men and boys like Yousif who were also held captive.
And the Yazidis are demanding much more, including the legal recognition of their suffering as genocide.
“There is no legal architecture in place in Iraq to allow judges to conclude that the conduct of Daesh constituted an act of genocide, of crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Khan said, adding that UNITAD’s mandate was to provide evidence to bring the culprits to trial eventually.
About 30% of Sinjar district’s population has returned since the departure of Daesh, but the region is still racked by political instability and lacks basic services.
At his father’s graveside in Kojo, surrounded by other grieving Yazidis, mostly widows, Yousif said his community simply wanted justice.
“We want the world to see that there is a minority in Iraq that suffers,” he said. “We want the world to see us as human beings who have rights just like everyone else.”


Pope Leo appeals for Gaza ceasefire, laments deaths of children

Updated 55 min 32 sec ago
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Pope Leo appeals for Gaza ceasefire, laments deaths of children

  • ‘The intense cries are reaching Heaven more and more from mothers and fathers,’ he said

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo appealed on Wednesday for a ceasefire in Gaza, and called on Israel and Hamas militants to “completely respect” international humanitarian law.

“In the Gaza Strip, the intense cries are reaching Heaven more and more from mothers and fathers who hold tightly to the bodies of their dead children,” the pontiff said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“To those responsible, I renew my appeal: stop the fighting,” said the pope. “Liberate all the hostages. Completely respect humanitarian law.”

Leo, elected on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis, also appealed for an end to the war in Ukraine.


Italy demands Israel stops strikes, blasts expulsions of Gazans

Updated 28 May 2025
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Italy demands Israel stops strikes, blasts expulsions of Gazans

  • Antonion Tajani: ‘The bombings must stop, humanitarian assistance must resume as soon as possible, respect for international humanitarian law must be restored’

ROME: Italy’s foreign minister on Wednesday again urged Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza, while warning that expelling Palestinians from the territory “is not and never will be an acceptable option.”
“The legitimate reaction of the Israeli government to a terrible and senseless terrorist act has unfortunately taken on absolutely tragic and unacceptable forms, that we ask Israel to stop immediately,” Antonion Tajani told parliament, referring also to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“The bombings must stop, humanitarian assistance must resume as soon as possible, respect for international humanitarian law must be restored,” he said.
“Hamas must immediately free all the hostages which are still today in its in hands, and who have the right to return to their homes.”
Tajani also condemned US President Donald Trump’s plan for US control of Gaza and the forced displacement of the Palestinians living there.
“I want to reiterate today in this chamber with the utmost clarity – the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is not and will never be an acceptable option,” Tajani said.
“This is why we wholeheartedly support the Arab plan led by Egypt for the recovery and reconstruction of the (Gaza) Strip, which is incompatible with any hypothesis of forced displacement.”


Israel hits Houthi targets including last plane at Sanaa airport

Updated 4 min 6 sec ago
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Israel hits Houthi targets including last plane at Sanaa airport

  • The strike had completely destroyed the last of the civilian planes that Yemenia Airways was operating from the airport
  • Three other Yemenia Airways planes were destroyed in an attack earlier this month

JERUSALEM/ADEN: Israel said it had struck Houthi targets including the last remaining plane used by the group at Sanaa international airport, after the Yemeni militants launched missiles toward Israel a day earlier.

The General Director of Sanaa International Airport, Khaled Al-Shaief, said in a post on his X account that the strike had completely destroyed the last of the civilian planes that Yemenia Airways was operating from the airport.

The airport is the largest in Yemen and came back into service last week after temporary repairs and runway restoration following previous Israeli strikes.

It was mainly being used by UN aircraft and the plane destroyed in the latest Israeli strikes. Three other Yemenia Airways planes were destroyed in an attack earlier this month.

“This is a clear message and a direct continuation of the policy we have established: whoever fires at the State of Israel will pay a heavy price,” Israel’s defense ministry said in a statement.

The Houthis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” a regional alliance that includes Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis control territory where about 60 percent of Yemen’s population resides.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the group has fired at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea in what it says are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Most of the dozens of missiles and drones fired toward Israel have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.

The US also launched intensified strikes against the Houthis this year, before halting the campaign after the Houthis agreed to stop attacks on US ships.

In a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that any harm directed at Israel will be met with greater force.

“But, as I have said more than once, the Houthis are only the symptom. The main driving force behind them is Iran, which is responsible for the aggression emanating from Yemen,” Netanyahu said.


At least 47 wounded, mostly by gunfire, as Palestinians crowd aid hub in Gaza

Updated 28 May 2025
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At least 47 wounded, mostly by gunfire, as Palestinians crowd aid hub in Gaza

  • The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people

GENEVA: A UN official says 47 Palestinians were wounded, mostly by gunfire, when crowd overran Gaza aid hub.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva that it appeared Israeli army fire had caused most of the injuries.

On Tuesday, crowds of Palestinians overwhelmed a new aid distribution hub set up by an Israeli and US-backed foundation. The crowd broke through fences and an Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.

The distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was opened the day before by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.

The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.

Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli blockade pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.


Gaza rescuers say 16 killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday

Updated 28 May 2025
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Gaza rescuers say 16 killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday

  • Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza this month, aiming for ‘the defeat of Hamas’
  • At least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza rescuers said sixteen people were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes across the besieged Palestinian territory where Israel intensified its operations this month.

“Sixteen people have been killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Among them, nine belonged to the family of photojournalist Osama Al-Arbeed and were killed in a strike on their home in Gaza’s north at 2:00 a.m., Bassal said.

He added that Arbeed was injured, noting that he is a videographer and editor at a local film production organization.

Another six members of the same family were killed in central Gaza in a strike that left 15 people wounded, “including children.”

One other person, a civilian per Bassal, was killed near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes, saying it could not do so without precise coordinates.

Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza this month, aiming for “the defeat of Hamas,” more than 18 months after the group’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Some 1,218 people were killed in that attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.