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Sinjar

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This article is about the Iraqi town. 'Sinjar' may also refer to its eponymous district, mountains, or nearby plain.

Sinjar
Kurdish: شنگار/شنگال /Şengar/Şingal
Yezidi Temple on Mount Sinjar, 2004.
Yezidi Temple on Mount Sinjar, 2004.
Country Iraq
GovernorateNineveh Governorate
Government
 • MayorÊzidî Mirza [1]
Elevation
522 m (1,713 ft)
Population
 (2013)
 • Total88,023
Time zoneUTC+3 (GMT)

Sinjār also known as Shingal[2] (Kurdish: Şengal/Şingal/Şingar/شنگار/ شنگال)[3][4][5][6] is a town in Shingal District, Nineveh Province, Ezidkhan near Mount Shingal. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023.[7]

The important Chermera temple (meaning 40 Men) is found at the highest peak of the Shingal Mountains.

History

A map of the "Jazira"'s provinces in medieval times.

In 2007, several explosions set off by al-Qaeda in Iraq killed hundreds of Yazidis in Shingal.[8]

Northern Iraq Offensive (2014)

In the course of their second Northern Iraq offensive in August 2014, ISIS conquered large areas of Nineveh province. Following the defeat against the Kurdish Peshmerga they seized the city of Shingal on 3 August. During the following days, IS militants perpetrated the Sinjar massacre, killing 2,000 Yazidi men and taking Yazidi women into slavery, leading to a mass exodus of Yazidi residents. According to a UN report, 5,000 Yazidi civilians were killed during ISIL's August offensive.[9]

On the night of 20 December 2014, in the course of a first offensive to retake it from Islamic State militants, Kurdish forces pushed into the city of Sinjar.[10] However, the Kurdish advance into the city was stalled, as they faced fierce resistance from the ISIL militants inside the southern half of the city.[11]

On 13 November 2015, a day after launching a major second offensive, Kurdish forces and Yazidi militias backed by US airstrikes, entered the city and fully regained its control from ISIS.[12] Following the recapture, in nearby hamlet of Solagh, east of Sinjar city, Kurdish forces found a mass grave with the remains of at least 78 Yazidi women from Kocho village believed to be executed by ISIL militants.[13][14]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/kurdistan/283611
  2. ^ King, Diane E. (2013). Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq. Rutgers University Press. p. 181. ISBN 9780813563541.
  3. ^ "Pêşmergeyan Şingal rizgar kirin (Peshmerga liberated Sinjar (in Kurdish)". Avesta Kurd. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  4. ^ "ŞENGAL - Barzanî operasyonê dimeşîne (gav bi gav tên nûkirin)". Sputnik News. 12 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  5. ^ "YAZIDIS i. GENERAL". Encyclopaedia Iranica. 20 July 2004. Retrieved 13 November 2015. The Yazidis' cultural practices are observably Kurdish, and almost all speak Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish), with the exception of the villages of Baʿšiqa and Baḥzānēin northern Iraq, where Arabic is spoken. Kurmanji is the language of almost all the orally transmitted religious traditions of the Yazidis.
  6. ^ Abul Fazl-i-Ạllámí (1894), "Description of the Earth", The Áin I Akbarí, vol. Vol. III, Translated by H.S. Jarrett, Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press for the Asiatic Society of Bengal, p. 25–27 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
  7. ^ "Iraq: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population". World Gazetteer.[dead link]
  8. ^ Shefler, Gil (7 August 2014). "Islamic State accused of capturing Yazidi women and forcing them to convert, or else". Washington Post. Religion News Service. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  9. ^ "Isil carried out massacres and mass sexual enslavement of Yazidis, UN confirms". Daily Telegraph. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  10. ^ "Iraq's Kurds press offensive against Islamic State in Sinjar". DPA International. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  11. ^ "Iraqi Kurds Advance Against Islamic State in Sinjar". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  12. ^ "Battle for Sinjar: IS-held town in Iraq 'liberated'". BBC News. 13 November 2015.
  13. ^ Isabel Coles (14 November 2015). "Mass Yazidi grave discovered after Iraq's Sinjar taken from Islamic State". Reuters. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Mass grave of 'Yazidi women executed by ISIS' found in Iraq". AFP. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
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