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Masoud Barzani: The Butcher of Sinjar

While ISIS may have executed the genocide against Iraq’s Yezidi population, a US lawsuit reveals that Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani and his untouchable Peshmerga forces played a direct, complicit role in the massacre, driven by their geopolitical interest in conquering Sinjar.

A Cradle Correspondent

In August 2014, ISIS launched a nightmarish campaign to massacre, enslave, and rape thousands of Yezidis – an ethno-religious minority in the Sinjar region of Iraq – in what is widely acknowledged as a genocide. 

But now, a lawsuit currently underway in the US District Court in Washington, DC, makes a shocking claim: Masoud Barzani, the longtime Iraqi Kurdish leader, orchestrated the mass slaughter of Yezidis, using ISIS as a proxy.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Kurdistan Victims Fund, headed by Stephen Studdert, a former senior advisor to US Presidents George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford.

The lawsuit alleges that Masoud Barzani “orchestrated, accommodated, and facilitated” the Yezidi genocide.

The genocide was pre-planned

Multiple Yezidi testimonies affirm Barzani’s role, including that of Mirza Ismail, Chairman of the Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International, who tells The Cradle: 

The Yezidi genocide was pre-planned. Masoud Barzani planned to annihilate the Yezidis in order to create an Islamic state in Kurdistan.

Fear among the Yezidis of an ISIS attack on Sinjar had been mounting for months before the genocide in August 2014. Despite vows from Kurdish security forces – the once revered Peshmerga – to protect the Yezidis until their “last drop of blood,” these troops instead ensured ISIS could carry out their horrific acts.

Under orders from their leadership, the Peshmerga disarmed Yezidis and prevented them from fleeing Sinjar, leaving them defenseless, open targets for the terror rampage to follow. Ten years later, Barzani’s role as the orchestrator of the Yezidi genocide is still almost completely unknown, except, notably, among the survivors themselves.

Defending Sinjar ‘Until the last drop of blood’

In January 2014, ISIS began its blitzkrieg to capture territory in eastern Syria and western Iraq. Mirza Ismail tells The Cradle that after ISIS murdered Yezidi farmers in the town of Rabiaa in May, “We knew something would happen to us.”

After ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in June, with Masoud Barzani’s help, the situation only became more dangerous.

Sinjar was suddenly surrounded by ISIS from three sides: from the town of Baaj in the south, from Tel Afar and Mosul in the east, and from Syria to the west. The only way out was to the north, toward the Syrian border crossing, and then to the city of Dohuk in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Many Yezidis felt ISIS would attack Sinjar next, but local officials from Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) publicly reassured the Yezidis that the Peshmerga would defend them.

In the Daily Beast, journalist Christine Van Den Toorn reported that Sarbast Baiperi, the head of the KDP’s 17th Branch in Sinjar, boasted that “until the last drop of blood we will defend Sinjar.”

The Peshmerga disarm and trap Yezidis in Sinjar

Yet amid the looming ISIS threat, the Peshmerga took pains to prevent Yezidis from fleeing Sinjar. 

One Yezidi man stated to The Cradle that when he and his family became scared and tried to escape to the Iraqi Kurdish region on 1 August, just two days before the ISIS attack, the Peshmerga blocked them at a checkpoint. 

“We received orders from Barzani that none of the residents are allowed to flee,” the Peshmerga told him. “Some who defied the Peshmerga’s orders were even shot at,” he added.

He explained further that he had been forced to turn in his weapons to the local Peshmerga base, including all of his ammunition. “We actually trusted that they would protect us,” he said.

Another Yezidi witness from Sinjar reveals to The Cradle that Peshmerga forces went from house to house, confiscating weapons from Yezidis, including the heavy weapons Yezidi members of the Iraqi army had brought back to Sinjar with them after the army collapsed in Mosul.

The Peshmerga campaign to confiscate Yezidi weapons was corroborated by US author and Kurdish rights activist Amy Beam. She reportedfurther that “some Yezidis say that the presence of the Peshmerga was to control them, not to protect them because no Peshmerga bases were established in the neighboring Arab villages.”

Van Den Toorn also confirmed that Barzani’s KDP tried to prevent Yezidis from fleeing Sinjar. A local KDP official told her that “higher-ups in the party told representatives to keep people calm and that if people in their areas of coverage left, their salaries would be cut.”

The Peshmerga arm ISIS

Not trusting the Peshmerga, Yezidis, who had served in the Iraqi army demanded the return of their confiscated heavy weapons. Qasim Shesho, a Yezidi Peshmerga commander and KDP member, pleaded with his Kurdish superiors for months, even on the night before the ISIS attack – to no avail. 

Instead, Saeed Kestayi, the commander-in-chief of the Peshmerga in Sinjar, was angered at the request. “We didn’t come here to give our weapons to anyone. We are still alive, and until the last drop of blood in us, no one will enter Sinjar,” he told Shesho. 

Rather than give weapons to Yezidis to defend themselves, the Peshmerga leadership instead focused on “business,” and “selling weapons,” Shesho explained. In other words, they sold the large supply of weapons confiscated from the Iraqi army to ISIS.

US academic Matthew Barber, one of the foremost experts on the Yezidi genocide, reports that the Peshmerga leadership sold the weapons to smugglers who then transported the weapons across the border to Syria to sell to ISIS. The sales were brokered by a Yezidi from Kocho, Qasim Simo, who was a member of the KDP secret police in Sinjar.

The Peshmerga withdraw without warning

In the early hours of 3 August, ISIS attacked Sinjar from all directions. A Yezidi from Tel Ezer, one of the first towns to be attacked,stated that he saw “Daesh invading in 50 trucks from two directions, trying to circle the people to prevent them from fleeing to Mount Sinjar. They were distinguishable by their all-black clothing, U.S. army and Saudi Arabian vehicles, and black flags with white Arabic words proclaiming they were the army of God.”

In a stunning show of betrayal, the 10,000-strong Peshmerga force suddenly withdrew without warning, leaving the Yezidis instantly exposed and vulnerable without the means to protect themselves.

The Peshmerga leadership, including Sarbast Baiperi, “fled before any civilian fled,” Qasim Shesho stated.

A Kurdish official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Washington Post acknowledged the withdrawal was organized. 

He said Barzani’s Peshmerga forces had made a “tactical retreat” from Sinjar to allow civilians to leave. But this justification for the withdrawal was completely illogical. The Peshmerga needed to stand and fight to allow Yezidi civilians the chance to flee.

Matthew Barber confirmed as well that the Peshmerga withdrew “without firing a bullet” in almost all cases. According to public and private statements by Peshmerga commanders, the order to withdraw was issued by the KDP leadership in Erbil, Barber added.

The Peshmerga decieve Yezidis

The Peshmerga not only failed to warn the Yezidis of the impending ISIS attack but also deceived them by falsely assuring reinforcements were on the way. 

A Yezidi from Tel Ezer told The Cradle that on morning of the attack, the Peshmerga evacuated to the mountain, but left just a few Yezidi members of the Peshmerga at the checkpoint at the edge of the town. "Til 9 am, they would not allow anyone to leave,” he explained. 

At the checkpoint, the Yezidi Peshmerga would say, “The son of Masoud Barzani is on his way with a huge army to rescue you, so stay where you are.” The Yezidi Peshmerga “were also betrayed,” the man said.

Two hundred Yezidi fighters who stayed behind, waiting for the promised help, were overwhelmed and massacred by ISIS.

In the village of Sour Awa, the Peshmerga not only withdrew but killed three Yezidi members of the Peshmerga, Eiad Naiv Murad, Youssef Jabal, and Ali Jabal, who demanded their Kurdish commander leave them weapons so they could defend the village. Of the incident, Iraq expert Joel Wing writes:

When Yezidi Peshmerga saw their unit packing up to leave, they told their commanders they were staying to defend their villages and asked for weapons. This led to an argument, and three Yezidi Peshmerga were killed … The Kurdish decision allowed ISIS to surround the southern villages and later take the rest of the district as they overwhelmed the lightly-armed villagers.

Speaking to The Cradle, a relative of one of the three Yezidi men killed by the Peshmerga – who wishes to remain anonymous like most of the Yezidi civilians who spoke to this media outlet – says that before the fight broke out, the Peshmerga commander said he had orders from the top brass not to give any weapons to Yezidis.

Blocking the Yezidi escape

In another instance, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters actively prevented Yezidis from escaping to the safety of Sinjar Mountain, allowing ISIS militants to capture over 1,000 of them.

Salwa Khalaf Rasho, a 16-year-old Yezidi girl, gave testimony to the UK Parliament that when she and her family tried to flee to the mountain, “a checkpoint of Peshmerga stopped us and blocked our way.”

When they found another, longer way to flee toward the mountain, “a convoy of Peshmerga together with its commander, Sarbast Baiperi, and his soldiers pointed their guns at us and threatened us.” They told Salwa and her family, “Clear out of the way so the Peshmerga convoy can flee first and reach the mountain.”

Salwa says that after the Peshmerga convoy left, “one car broke down and blocked the road. Therefore, the cars were stuck in a traffic jam. We waited. During this time, ISIS terrorists reached us and surrounded us.”

Salwa was enslaved and raped for eight months by an ISIS commander before she managed to escape.

A video of the incident shows the vehicle blocking the winding road to the mountain was not civilian but a Peshmerga military vehicle. Ismail confirms that the Peshmerga purposely trapped Yezidis by blocking the road:

The Peshmerga put the vehicle on the road and said it was broken. Then they told the people they must go back. ISIS was behind them and captured many people. My family was there, but they were able to escape. A couple of my cousins were there.

Kurds in the ranks of ISIS

Contrary to popular belief, Kurdish members also filled the ranks of ISIS during the attack on Sinjar. As one Yezidi from Sinjar discloses to The Cradle:

The most dangerous people for Yezidis are Kurds. Kurds were living in Sinjar, too, not just Arabs. Kurdish ISIS members killed many Yezidis in August 2014, not just Arabs, especially in the center of Sinjar City.

A Yezidi man from the village of Karzark statedthat when ISIS attacked early on 3 August, two of his Kurdish neighbors drove from house to house in a pick-up truck with ISIS militants, searching houses and finding Yezidis to kill. After escaping to Dohuk, the man later discovered his Kurdish neighbors had also reached the Iraqi Kurdish region. He reported their role in the killings to Kurdish authorities, but no action was taken against them.

“The only thing we want is to get our revenge on those Kurdish traitors who betrayed and tortured us,” he says.

A Yezidi man from Sinjar tells The Cradle, “Only later did we find out” that Muslims from three local Kurdish tribes had “joined the ISIS militia and paved the way for it.” 

“Many Peshmerga also sympathized with ISIS,” he adds.

One Yezidi woman interviewed by The Cradlesays that she actually witnessed some Kurdish Peshmerga joining ISIS while she and her brother were escaping on foot toward the mountain:

Behind a larger hill, we saw three Peshmerga vehicles. We could see how the Peshmerga took off their uniforms and put on the black clothing of Daesh [ISIS]. I was shocked. I don’t know how many Peshmerga there were. But there were a lot.

Adding credence to this claim, a Yezidi activist who has amassed testimonies of genocide survivors informs The Cradle:

I have over 500 testimonies, and all say the same thing. The Kurdish Peshmerga betrayed us. Many of them saw how the Peshmerga joined ISIS, and many of them said the first shot was fired by the Peshmerga. The first killing was started by the Peshmerga.

Barzani harbors ISIS leaders

After the slaughter, some Kurdish ISIS members found refuge in Barzani’s Kurdistan region. Prominent Kurdish activist Qadir Nadir revealed that ISIS leaders lived in Erbil under Barzani’s protection, enjoying secure apartments and receiving salaries from the KDP. 

One such leader, Salah Mustafa Qarbash, was later discovered living in Erbil and supporting Barzani’s political initiatives. Qarbash was recognizable to Yezidis due to a TV interviewhe gave during the August 2014 attack in which he justified taking Yezidi women as sex slaves and called on Yezidis to convert to Islam or be killed.

In 2017, Qarbash appeared on a KDP-funded TV station in Erbil. He spoke in support of Barzani’s upcoming referendum for Kurdish independence, describing it as a step toward establishing an Islamic state.

What was Barzani’s goal?

Both before and during the August 2014 genocide, Masoud Barzani’s powerful Peshmerga trapped, disarmed, deceived, and abandoned Yezidis.

The Peshmerga’s betrayal of Yezidis ensured that ISIS would be able to slaughter and enslave thousands of men, women, and children while forcing hundreds of thousands more to flee Sinjar.

But why did Barzani – who is heavily supported by the United States and Israel– use the Peshmerga to perpetrate the genocide of Yezidis in partnership with ISIS? A Yezidi lawyer speaking with The Cradle stated Barzani’s motivations clearly:

The Kurdish Muslims are not indigenous to Sinjar, but they want to take it. They are taking over land and then building mosques, killing some people, controlling the land, and trying to convert people to Islam by force.

Yezidi survivors of the genocide will have no justice until its orchestrators – Masoud Barzani, and top KDP officials and Peshmerga commanders – are held accountable.