Massud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdish region, has announced the “liberation” of the town of Sinjar in a major operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
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Twenty-four-year-old Badr Sleiman Taha from Kocho said his mother, aunt and grandmother were amongst those killed behind the institute, and that he recognised the cane of an old woman from his village among the remains.
Barzani told a news conference near the northern town: “I am here to announce the liberation of Sinjar”.
The Kurdish forces encountered little resistance, at least initially, suggesting that numerous IS fighters may have pulled back in anticipation of Friday’s advance.
Kurdish forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, greatly retook the Islamic State held town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq on Friday.
Iraqi Kurdish officials said the dead were probably Yazidis, members of a religious minority from Sinjar who were the target of a wave of terror by Islamic State fighters.
Meanwhile, Kurdish peshmerga forces are working to clear the many bombs left by IS.
The United States has carried out a fresh delivery of ammunition to fighters from the Syrian Arab Coalition battling Islamic State in northern Syria, pushing ahead with a strategy that initially unnerved ally Turkey, a USA official told Reuters on Sunday. “Today we took revenge for every Yazidi”.
Sinjar has been pounded by US-led air strikes and Kurdish artillery fire targeting IS positions, which sent massive columns of smoke drifting up from the town on Thursday.
“We are absolutely confident that over the next days Sinjar will be able to be liberated”, Mr Kerry said on a visit to Tunisia.
The huge task of clearing Sinjar of bombs planted by the Islamic State remains, and there is also the possibility of holdouts, who have kept up attacks even after other areas in Iraq were said to have been retaken.
“No one was fighting back”, Peshmerga Maj. Military leaders warned that it’s too soon to declare victory.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, speaking to Al Jazeera, said that they dug up bones, clumps of hair and personal items such as shoes, jewelry and walking sticks from the grave.
“I can’t say the operation is complete because there are still threats remaining inside Sinjar”, he said. The risks include ambushes from suicide bombers, roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses, he added.
The Iraqi town of Sinjar is strategically important to ISIS because it is located along the Syrian border and therefore allows the terrorists to maintain a cross-border territory for their so-called Islamic Caliphate.
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Additional information from the Associated Press.
