AFP, Altun Kopri :
More than 200 most elderly members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority were freed by the Islamic State group after eight months in captivity and crossed Wednesday to the safety of Kurdistan.
“We have received 227 Yazidis, among them women and children” in the northern province of Kirkuk Wednesday, Major General Westa Rasul of the Kurdish peshmerga forces told AFP.
“We negotiated for days with tribal sheikhs in Hawijah and were able to free the kidnapped Yazidis,” Rasul said, referring to an IS-controlled town in Kirkuk.
The Yazidis were actually freed Monday in Nineveh province, northwest of Kirkuk, but did not make their way to a Kurdish-controlled territory until two days later.
More than 200 most elderly members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority were freed by the Islamic State group after eight months in captivity and crossed Wednesday to the safety of Kurdistan.
“We have received 227 Yazidis, among them women and children” in the northern province of Kirkuk Wednesday, Major General Westa Rasul of the Kurdish peshmerga forces told AFP.
“We negotiated for days with tribal sheikhs in Hawijah and were able to free the kidnapped Yazidis,” Rasul said, referring to an IS-controlled town in Kirkuk.
The Yazidis were actually freed Monday in Nineveh province, northwest of Kirkuk, but did not make their way to a Kurdish-controlled territory until two days later.
