ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The remains of 22 Yazidis killed during the 2014 Islamic State (ISIS) assault on their ancestral homeland of Shingal (Sinjar) were laid to rest on Wednesday. This marks the eighth batch of remains returned from mass graves, bringing the total number of reinterred Yazidi victims to 318.
The remains were exhumed from mass graves in Shingal and surrounding areas, then identified through extensive DNA testing in Baghdad before being returned to their hometown.
Colonel Shaker Mahmoud, an officer with the Directorate of Investigation and Evidence Collection in Duhok, told Rudaw, “Since 2018, more than 760 sets of remains from Shingal have been sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. Seven batches have been identified and returned so far, and this is the eighth.”
Mahmoud added that the victims buried Wednesday were primarily from the villages of Kojo, Hardan, Tal Qasab, and Tal Banat, located south of Shingal. “The remains arrived yesterday at the Forensic Medicine Department in Mosul [Nineveh] and will be buried in Shingal,” he confirmed.
In June 2014, ISIS seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. By August, the group launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women, and abducting 6,000 to 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking.
The United Nations officially recognized the campaign against the Yazidis as a genocide.
Among those buried on Wednesday were two brothers of renowned human rights activist and ISIS survivor Nadia Murad.
After escaping captivity - where she endured sexual violence and lost several family members - Murad became a powerful advocate for Yazidi genocide and sexual violence victims. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Nadia Murad, renowned human rights activist and survivor of the Yazidi genocide, mourns her two brothers whose remains were returned Wednesday to the Yazidi ancestral homeland of Shingal (Sinjar), more than a decade after they were killed by the Islamic State (ISIS). pic.twitter.com/UBwlwmqXpI
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) August 13, 2025
Ahmed Qusay, head of Iraq’s Mass Graves Excavation Team, said the search for more victims continues. “Our teams are still searching for mass graves in Shingal,” he told Rudaw. “So far, we have opened 62 mass graves, with 30 more awaiting excavation.”
Qusay explained that 600 remains have been recovered from the graves already opened. “Out of those, 250 were identified through DNA testing and handed over to their families,” he said.
During the ISIS attack on Shingal, around 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee, with most seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region. Although Iraq declared full liberation from ISIS in 2017, approximately 21,000 Yazidi families remain displaced, mainly in camps in the Region’s northern Duhok province. Their return is hindered by ongoing security concerns and the presence of various armed groups in Shingal.
As of early August, around 2,590 Yazidis remain missing, according to the Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis. Hussein Qaidi, head of the office affiliated with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, told Rudaw that most kidnapped Yazidis are believed to be held in Syria, many in camps housing suspected ISIS affiliates.
Since its establishment, the office has succeeded in rescuing 3,590 Yazidis from ISIS captivity, Qaidi said, but stressed the crisis is far from over. On the 11th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide, marked in early August, President Barzani pledged to continue efforts “until the last Yazidi abductee is returned.”
