MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Jihadists killed thousands of Shabak people, a religious and ethnic minority living in and around Mosul, when they seized the northern Iraqi city two years ago, Razi Behcet, the chairman of the local Shabak Council, told Sputnik.
"When Daesh captured Mosul, the majority of Shabak Kurds fled the city. They hid in Baghdad and Erbil. But some could not leave their homes in Mosul … Their houses were burned down, women and children degraded and tortured. Thousands were slaughtered," he said.
Shabak people make up the majority of residents in Mosul’s eastern neighborhoods and 85 nearby villages. Behcet said many of them were still under Daesh control, almost a month after the Iraqi government launched an operation to retake the city with air support from an international coalition.