Izadi Kurds in Iraq being rounded up by ISIL terrorists after their town was run over by the Takfiris (file photo)
Hundreds of Iraq’s displaced Izadi Kurds have joined military training camps in Syria to prepare for battling Takfiri ISIL terrorists in Iraq, sources say.
One of the training camps is located in Qamishli, northeastern Syria on the border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, where Izadi Kurds are being trained by the Syrian Kurds, a photographer working for Reuters said on Sunday.
The volunteers “really want to go back to Iraq to fight,” the unnamed photographer added.
Iraq has faced a brutal offensive by the ISIL across the country’s north and west since early June. However, the crisis has deteriorated in recent weeks, as the militants swept over new towns in the north, forcing members of the minority Christian and Izadi communities out of their homes.
Tens of thousands of Izadi Kurds escaped to take refuge in the Sinjar Mountain range, becoming trapped for days without food or water. Some have been airlifted out by Iraq's Air Force and others escaped to Syria.
Meanwhile, a member from the media office of the Kurdish YPG, or the People’s Defense Units, told Reuters that the Izadi volunteers in Syria train in weapon use and fighting tactics for several days before being sent back to Mount Sinjar to fight.
“In the past ten days, hundreds [of Izadi Kurds] have graduated. And we are training more,” said Anas Hani from eastern Syria, noting that the volunteers “have established what they call the Singar Resistance Units” on the top of the Singar Mountains, in cooperation with locals and the YPG.
The ISIL terrorists have been committing heinous crimes in the captured areas, including the mass execution of civilians and Iraqi security forces.
On Friday, the Takfiri militants massacred around 100 members of the Izadi Kurds minority in the village of Kocho, northern Iraq.
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