CENTRAL NEWS
The city of Şengal was seized by ISIL in August 2014. The city was left in the bloody hands of the jihadists until the PKK’s army opened a corridor lined with guerrillas to help the remaining civilians to flee. Turkey-backed jihadists who enjoyed protection by the Turkey-affiliated KDP were crushed by the guerrillas who liberated Şengal by November 2015.
Defenceless
Şengal borders Rojava and is not far from Turkey-occupied northern Kurdistan. The district’s main city, also called Şengal , and surrounding areas were once home to around 420,000 people, including the majority of the South’s Yazidi religious minority – which is largely Kurdish, as well as Sunni Arabs, Sunni and Shia Turkomans, Shabaks, Christians, and other, smaller communities.
The war to oust the Islamic State group (ISIS) and its Iraqi branch, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, from its self-proclaimed “caliphate” in Kurdistan, Syria and Iraq once dominated headlines around the world.
News of the first attacks by ISIL against Şengal was followed by news and footage of petrified Peshmerga scrambling onto one another to flee. The people of Şengal were abandoned before they heard the sound of the first bombs by the security forces who were supposed to protect them. Still massacre number 74 would become an unbearable pain, an attack which would snag at the honour and pride of an ancient people. The toll of this massacre would become heavier than death, more diminishing.
The Yazidi people had been left to face their destiny, being members of a religion which represents the historical heritage of the peoples of the region. They had wanted to be annihilated many times in history by the Ottoman empire, and the unspeakable shame which was started on the August of 2014 was no different. Erdogan raised child-raping, woman-selling hounds and unleashed them at the doors of defenceless people. By doing so, Kurdistan’s cursed land would once again be witness to demographic change at the hands of occupiers.
The massacre began with ISIL attacking and capturing Şengal town and neighboring towns on 3 August during its northern Iraq offensive. At this point more than 250 Peshmerga fighters in Şengal withdrew, leaving the civilians behind without warning. The villagers defended themselves with their own weapons, but ISIL fighters shelled them with mortars. By 3 a.m., ISIL fighters had broken through and begun killing anyone seen outdoors.
Genocidal massacres, against the Yezidi people, caused the deaths of thousands of people, the exile of tens of thousands of Yezidis on the Şengal mountains where they died of hunger and the enslavement of thousands of women and children.
Freed Şengal
On the Eastern Front, the guerrillas who left the village of Kızılkent towards the city took control of each checkpoint and Tel Qesab, the largest city square. On the east and west fronts, the first entries in the streets took place. While most ISIS fascists fled occupied areas, a whole group was taken alive. Guerrillas forces destroyed two vehicles carrying members of ISIS trying to leave the city. When the center of the city of Şengal was completely under control, the total liberation of the outskirts operations continued. Flags of YBŞ (Yezidis forces) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Forces) were planted on large silos of wheat. The HPG HQ of Şengal and the General Commandement HQ of the YBŞ said that the city of Şengal was liberated in a short press release:
“On the second day of the offensive to liberate the city of Şengal and surrounding villages, we announce to our people that Şengal is free. We announce the liberation of the city to our people and the press. The operations to liberate the villages of Şengal and its vicinity continue today. A more complete report will follow later. “
