SINJAR, Iraq -- Up a steep road that snakes around northern Iraq's Mount Sinjar lies a ghost city.
The so-called Islamic State, also known as ISIS, showed up on Sinjar's doorstep 15 months ago, hellbent on killing, raping and terrorizing members of the religious minority and expanding territory for their self-declared "caliphate". And so they did.
But on Friday, ISIS' control ended when Kurdish forces, backed by US airstrikes, successfully pushed out the extremist fighters, whose merciless attacks on the Yazidi population may amount to genocide, according to the United Nations.
Advertisement
The WorldPost traveled with Kurdish and Yazidi fighters to Sinjar on Sunday. All that's left is the empty carcass of a once-thriving place and the stuff of nightmares.
Ugly lettering stains the exterior of family homes, reading "Yazidi", "Sunni" and "Shia" in Arabic, evidence of the extremists' violent sectarian nature. Muslims around the world have denounced their violent interpretation of Islam and the majority of ISIS victims are Sunni Muslims.
Locals said ISIS largely left Sunni families alone in Sinjar if they followed their orders, but the extremists violently targeted the Yazidi and Shia Muslim families. They burned their homes, took women as sex slaves and killed those they deemed "devil worshippers."
Advertisement
ISIS has waged war on the Yazidi because of their faith, which is made up of different aspects of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and the pre-Islamic Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.
When the extremist fighters rolled through Sinjar late last summer, they took hundreds of women and young girls captive. They killed many considered too old to be sex slaves and took the younger ones to places like the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is still under ISIS control.
This weekend, the site of what is believed to be a mass grave holding nearly 80 bodies of Yazidi women was discovered. Several skulls and bones lay on top of the damp earth, evidence of the horrors that may be hidden underground.
"My family has five missing girls," one young Yazidi fighter told The WorldPost as he stood guard in brown fatigues. His relative, 19-year-old Khoula, recently called him from Mosul, where she told him she had been "married off" by ISIS to 16 different men. He hasn't heard from the other four missing girls and women, whom ISIS snatched the day they took over. He never expects to see them again, he said, solemnly.
Yazidi fighters burned the homes of former Sunni inhabitants on Sunday in an act of revenge. While some Sunni families fled ISIS, other families stayed behind or moved to different cities still under the extremists' control.
Local security forces known as Asayesh went from house to house to survey the damage, keeping a watchful eye out for improvised explosive devices and booby traps that ISIS had left behind. In one home, the extremists had dug a 65-foot-long underground tunnel that led outside, perhaps to hide from airstrikes overhead.
Asayesh officer Majdel al Sheikhsaid security forces had found five IEDs in the past couple days and two ISIS suicide bombers holed up in the city.
Locals said a booby trap exploded when someone opened a Quran, another left in a fridge. Others are wired so that they explode when a door is opened.
Advertisement
ISIS documents lay scattered on the floors of homes seized by the extremists, including a laminated 33-page document titled "The Thirty Commandments for The Princes and Soldiers of The Islamic State".
It was reportedly written by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the nom de guerre of an Egyptian al Qaeda leader killed in a US airstrike in Iraq five years ago.
"It's still not safe," the officer, said, looking around and shrugging nervously. "ISIS could be anywhere."
The extremists had torched his home because they knew he was an Asayesh officer, he said.
Al Sheikh invited The WorldPost into the charred remains of his house, where he lived with his wife and two young daughters. Before walking inside, he picked up a doll on the ground.
Advertisement
"I bought this for my daughter in Erbil," he explained with a sad smile. Setting it down gently on a concrete wall in what used to be his courtyard, he said: "F*****g ISIS."
They were trapped on Mount Sinjar for six days, along with thousands of other Yazidis when ISIS came, with no food or water. They survived with the help of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a militant group the US deems terrorists, which has battled the Turkish state for three decades in the name of Kurdish rights.
Now, al Sheikh is left with nothing. He plans to head to Europe with his family like so many before him, shaking his head when asked if he was deterred by the bloody terrorist attacks in Paris.
On the filthy floor of his wrecked home is a burnt child's tricycle and a ceramic mug that reads "love". The only thing that seems to have survived ISIS is leafy green shrub in the backyard.
Advertisement
ISIS may be gone from Sinjar, for now, but it doesn't look like civilians will be able to rebuild anytime soon. Towns nearby that have been free from the extremists for months are still uninhabited.
"We're sad when people say Sinjar is free," a Yazidi fighter said as he paced back and forth down a street in ruins. "This is not freedom. Our dignity is gone."
Bryar Saeed contributed reporting from Sinjar.
Advertisement
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your Help
The Future Of Democracy Is At Stake
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?
HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.
It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.
But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.