Iraq’s ghost villages: Islamic State drove people away – now a new enemy is preventing their return. Nearly a decade after fighting ended in northern Iraq, the climate crisis has brought extreme heat and a water shortage, making life almost impossible

Rivers in the Sinjar region have dried up as rainfall has become more erratic and temperatures have risen

The village of Faka in Sinjar was overrun by Islamic State in 2014 and retaken in 2017. All [16] photographs: Chris Huby/Le Pictorium 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/aug/18/northern-iraq-villages-islamic-state-climate-crisis 

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By Chris Huby, in Sinjar

The first thing that strikes visitors arriving in Faka, a small village in Sinjar district, northern Iraq, is the silence. No children play in the streets. No shops are open. Roofless houses stretch across the hillside, their walls pockmarked by shellfire, while weeds and wild grasses grow through collapsed living rooms.

A decade after Islamic State (IS) swept across the region, war remains visible everywhere. But according to the people who returned, another enemy has quietly taken its place.

“Today, the problem isn’t only IS,” says Rajab Mohammed, 62, the village’s mukhtar, standing above the ruins of Faka. “It’s water. It’s jobs. It’s the future.”

Across Sinjar, abandoned houses now outnumber occupied ones. The battle against IS has ended. The battle to save the villages against drought and neglect has only just begun, and time is not on its side.

Before August 2014, about 150 families lived in Faka. When IS fighters seized the Sinjar region, residents fled as frontlines advanced across north-western Iraq. In August 2014, IS launched what the UN has recognised as a genocide against the ethnic minority Yazidi community. Thousands were killed and more than 6,000 people, mostly women and children, were abducted.

While Faka and the nearby village of Qubq escaped the mass killings that devastated other nearby villages, coalition airstrikes and ground fighting left much of the area destroyed. Today, only about 20 families have returned. The rest have settled elsewhere, discouraged by the lack of reconstruction, jobs and basic services in a region where the climate crisis is making rural livelihoods such as farming increasingly precarious.

“People ask why families don’t come back. The answer is simple. Where would they live? How would they earn a living?” says Aqil Ridha from Qubq.

The UN has ranked the country the fifth most vulnerable to declining water and food availability and extreme heat. Iraqi authorities project that by 2050 the country’s average annual temperature will have risen by 2.5C, with 24 additional days a year crossing extreme heat thresholds. Temperatures in Sinjar this summer have approached 50C.

Rainfall has become increasingly erratic and summers are hotter and longer, while prolonged droughts are reducing agricultural production. The UN’s special representative for Iraq has warned that the country will be able to meet only 15% of its water needs by 2035 if current trends continue.

In rural areas, where farming remains the principal source of income, the issues of climate and migration have become inseparable. The International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 186,000 people displaced by climate-related factors across Iraq as of September 2025.

In the village of... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/aug/18/northern-iraq-villages-islamic-state-climate-crisis 

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The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia...

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 Ihab Hassan

@IhabHassane

 

https://x.com/IhabHassane/status/2000253635964322062 

 

BREAKING: The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia. 

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place in the Australian city of Sydney, which resulted in a number of deaths and injuries. 

 

The Ministry affirms the full solidarity of the State of Palestine and its standing alongside friendly Australia—its government and people—during this painful tragedy. 

 

It reiterates its firm rejection of all forms of violence, terrorism, and extremism, which contradict human values, moral principles, and the teachings of all heavenly religions that call for peace, respect for human life, and the rejection of hatred and extremism. 

 

The Ministry extends its sincerest condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Australia, and to the families of the victims of this criminal attack, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

For seven days, not a single food truck has entered Gaza. Today, Israel cut off all electricity—shutting down the last sources of clean water. No food. No water. For two million people, half of them children. This isn’t war. It’s extermination....

sarah

@sahouraxo

 

For seven days, not a single food truck has entered Gaza. 

 

Today, Israel cut off all electricity—shutting down the last sources of clean water. 

 

No food. No water. For two million people, half of them children. This isn’t war. It’s extermination.

 

 Lest we forget. 

 

Israel has armed, treated, and coordinated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda rebels in Syria—for years. 

 

Even mainstream media reports confirm it. 

 

This is the truth they’re trying to bury today.

 

 

 Independent Lebanese geopolitical commentator. Follow Sarah on X x.com/sahouraxo and Instagram www.instagram.com/sahouraxo/pr...

 

Heart-rending pictures of a toddler's lifeless body washed ashore on a Turkish beach sparked horror on Wednesday as the cost of .... a growing refugee crisis hit home.

Wearing a red T-shirt and blue shorts, the child -- identified as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi -- is believed to be one of least 12 Syrians who died when their boats sank trying to reach Greece.

Istanbul (AFP) - Heart-rending pictures of a toddler's lifeless body washed ashore on a Turkish beach sparked horror on Wednesday as the cost of Europe's growing refugee crisis hit home.

The images of a tiny child lying face down in the surf at one of Turkey's main tourist resorts has once more put a human face on the dangers faced by tens of thousands of desperate people who risk life and limb to seek a new life in Europe.

From my old friend Palestinian-American Mike Hanini Odetalla's facebook wall:

#Refugees taken in by:
#SaudiArabia: 0
#Qatar: 0
#Kuwait: 0
#Emirates: 0
#Bahrain: 0

****** 

The archaeologist who looked after ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria for 40 years, Khaled al-Asaad, was taken hostage {and murdered by Daesh/ISIS} after IS seized the Unesco World Heritage site this year BBC News 2015

 

A cloud rises above where the Temple of Baal Shamin stood in Palmyra until {Daesh/ISIS}Isis blew it up in August 2015... Isis is destroying the ‘Venice of the sands’ piece by piece – and worse atrocities may be yet to come.

Kidnapping and Sex Slavery: Covering ISIS' Religious Justification for Rape

The New York Times

Aug 14, 2015 - Rukmini Callimachi discusses how she worked to tell the stories of Yazidi women and girls held as sex slaves by the Islamic State.

*************

FYI

#‎Jordan‬ hosts second largest number of {Syrian} ‪#‎refugees‬ per capita — 2015 report ‪#‎Amman‬ ‪#‎JO‬ #Jordan http://ow.ly/RJ6yP

According to official figures, there are some 1.4 million Syrians in Jordan. - See more at: http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-hosts-second-largest-number-refugees-capita-%E2%80%94-report#sthash.TLNe3Xcq.dpuf

Refugees from 44 nations, including Somalis, Iraqis and Sudanese, reside in Jordan, according to the UNHCR. - See more at: http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-hosts-second-largest-number-refugees-capita-%E2%80%94-report#sthash.TLNe3Xcq.dpu

My letter to the NYTimes RE The Reign of ‘Terror’ By Tomis Kapitan

Nearly a third of Gazans had been displaced by the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants. Secretary of State John Kerry and other diplomats stressed the need for a broad peace deal. Credit Mohammed Salem/Reuters

NYTimes: Conference Pledges $5.4 Billion to Rebuild Gaza Strip

RE: The Reign of ‘Terror’ By Tomis Kapitan
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/the-reign-of-terror/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=opinion&_r=0

Dear Editor,

We no longer live in a world of limited communication. Multiple sources are shaping a huge marketplace of ideas. The complexity of modern conflict can be traced- documented- researched- analyzed by multiple professionals and amateurs in multiple public and private forums. Not everyone watches Fox News. Not everyone subscribes to the NYTimes. And not everyone one believes in conspiracy theories...  Tomis Kapitan is wrong about "popular conceptions about contemporary political conflicts, making it difficult to speak intelligently about their real sources"... AND he does Palestine (and peace) no favors by asserting that Hamas and Hezbollah tactics do not qualify as terrorism.

HAMAS & Hezbollah are not as obviously bad as ISIL/The Islamic State/Da'esh, but they certainly have not helped free Palestine. Their rhetoric and their actions are geared to exasperate conflict and sabotage negotiations for a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine based on international law and full respect for universal human rights. 
 
Arming religion with lethal weaponry is a bad idea. I am not a fan of Israeli policy towards the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land, but that is no reason to excuse Islamist militants who are making the plight of the Palestinians much worse: Hamas uses violence to goad Israel into pulverizing Gaza because the more Palestinians suffer the more Israel can be blamed and hated as heart breaking photos of Palestinian children in the rubble proliferate on the internet, rousing rage internationally (and recruitment for ISIS) among those who still care about Palestine. Extremists and anti-Israel activists thrive but a wider pro-Palestine audience dwindles because Hamas and their apologists convince reasonable people to veer away from supporting Palestine and state building efforts.

Meanwhile, ISIS/ISIL/The Islamic State/Da'esh is rising up, reaching towards Palestine. The Islamic State's plundering impoverishes locals, while conveniently killing any and all who object. Singing happy songs about peace to heavily armed genocidal religious militants who enslave captured woman and girls to use as sex slaves and/or domestic servants is not going to magically inspire ISIS/ISIL/The Islamic State/Da'esh to abandon their wicked ways.  Islamists are the epitome of skewed reason and perpetual warfare.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
" ISIL is clearly exceptionally unpopular outside of the areas it controls. That’s a good thing. On the other hand, because it poses as a group that brings order to chaos, and because most people prefer any form of law and order to mere anarchy, ISIL has managed to win hearts and minds in some parts of Syria and Iraq where it has falsely posed as a champion of local Sunni populations and a generalised Islamic universalist and apocalyptic agenda." Hussein Ibish

Kerry: 'Imperative' to resume Israel-Palestinian talks: "There wasn't a leader I met with in the region who didn't raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation,"

U.N. Security Council urges stronger campaign against [Da'esh] Islamic State

“It’s always easy to get money for F-16s, but not so much for food and cash,” says Andrew Harper, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan, which says it may have to cut cash assistance programs for 20,000 families in November and December due to lack of funding.

Arabs from Israel risk arrest for 'Arab Idol' show... Israel and Suha Arraf Differ on Nationality of ‘Villa Touma’... & Escape to a World of Palestinian Surprises

My letter to the NYTimes RE Room for Debate: Should Nations Recognize a Palestinian State?

My letter to USAToday RE "Palestinian advocacy misunderstood: Objections" by Andrew Dalack & Bayan Founas, National Students for Justice in Palestine

STAY CONNECTED... Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to: Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace.... My Published Letters 2014

Citizens of the Earth

Hussein Ibish: The three-way Israeli-Palestinian impasse- Israel, the PA and Hamas are all trapped in their own policies with no idea how to move forward.

In #Palestine #Olive Trees witnessed foreign invaders for thousands of years...

THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE: Ethnographic Habitat, Place Memories, and Cultural Identity

UK Parliament votes to recognize Palestinian state- a symbolic move intended to increase pressure for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dorothy Shea: "Palestinians should be applauded for largely eliminating the gender gap in education. Unlike in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Palestinian girls and young women enjoy equal access to education as their male counterparts."

Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq... The article on slavery confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes

UK MPs To Vote On Recognition Of Palestine... "Dr Hanan Ashrawi, executive committee member of the PLO, told Sky News the Palestinian cause must be "rescued" to prevent jihadists [from] using it to fuel radicalisation and further extremism in the region."

Translating the Obvious ... A poem for peace in Growing Gardens for Palestine by Anne Selden Annab

U.S. calls for renewed commitment to lasting Mideast peace: "... a renewed commitment from everybody to work for peace that meets the aspirations of all, for Israelis, for Palestinians for all people of this region"

New Ibish article: Hisham, Hope and Despair..."The crucial point is that the one thing that is certain is that the choices that we make individually and collectively will have a direct and profound impact on the short, medium and long-term outcomes. And, therefore, our choices must be carefully considered, deliberate and purposive, while apathy and inaction are not options."

To promote the values of dialogue, tolerance and mutual respect, among religions and cultures... Let’s teach our youth to build, not destroy

Ashrawi: The recognition of Palestine is Human, Moral, Legal, and Political Imperative

"Let’s not feed Islamophobic bigotry... The great divide is not between faiths, but one between intolerant zealots of any tradition and the large numbers of decent, peaceful believers likewise found in each tradition." Nicholas Kristof

Last Thursday, the United Nations released a report that could provide us with one of the keys to defeating ISIS. Unfortunately, it received almost zero media attention.

"We see martyrs, children as young as 7, being portrayed as resistance fighters after being slaughtered by Israeli forces. Although we would like to convince ourselves that they have died for “the cause”, they have in fact died because of the cause." Mariam Barg

Hussein Ibish: US has a responsibility to rein in Israeli settlements

Tala Haikal: "It may not be possible to immediately free all the kidnapped girls and women due to the scope of the conflict with ISIS and the geographical dispersal of the captives in various locations. Some of these women and girls can be freed only once ISIS is destroyed."

UN report spotlights 'staggering' Islamic State atrocities in Iraq... "The group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has carried out a wide range of atrocities, including mass executions, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence against women and children"

Vatican seeks Mideast Christians' right of return

US sharply criticizes new Israeli housing project

Non-violent resistance is Palestine’s most powerful weapon

Tala Haikal: Empathy Is Essential to Humanity

Normalizing Intelligent Conversations, Diplomatic Support, and Hope for Palestine... ATFP Panel Briefing: Israeli-Palestinian War in a New Regional Landscape.

ATFP... American Task Force on Palestine

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians

International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014

UNRWA photo and film archive for Palestine refugees

About UNWRA: ’The Long Journey of Palestine Refugee Women’ candidly portrays the lives and experiences of Palestine refugee women, this collection is a testament not only to their own strength and dignity, but also to the richness and resilience of their community.

Walking Palestine & The Abraham Path... a creative space for stories that highlight the unique culture, heritage and hospitality of the region

It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace... It's time for freedom from occupation... It's time for equal rights.... It's time for the healing of wounded souls..... World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel: "Let my people go!"... 21 - 27 September 2014 An initiative of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

1948

Time and time again I have watched the cycle of incitement and spin sabotage support for Palestine

Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid

Live by the Golden Rule

• “Forgiving is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering - remembering and not using your right to hit back.”

An Anne Frank Moment ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

1940s: The United Nations General Assembly adopts resolution 194 (III), resolving that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”

America/Israel/Palestine 1776

America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq... The article on slavery confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes

A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria August 17, 2014. Rodi Said/Reuters 

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http://www.newsweek.com/islamic-state-seeks-justify-enslaving-yazidi-women-and-girls-iraq-277100

The Islamic State group said it enslaved families from the minority Yazidi sect after overrunning their villages in northwestern Iraq, in what it praised as the revival of an ancient custom of using women and children as spoils of war.

In an article in its English-language online magazine Dabiq, the group provides what it says is religious justification for the enslavement of defeated "idolators".

The ancient custom of enslavement had fallen out of use because of deviation from true Islam, but was revived when fighters overran Yazidi villages in Iraq's Sinjar region.

"After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State's authority to be divided as khums," it said. Khums is a traditional tax on the spoils of war.

"This large-scale enslavement of mushrik (idolator) families is probably the first since the abandonment of Shariah law," it said.

Dabiq, distributed in a slickly-produced online format, is described by the group SITE that monitors militant publications as Islamic State's English-language magazine.

The cover shows a picture of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, with an Islamic State black flag superimposed in place of the cross atop its obelisk. Inside it features photos of the group's arsenal of heavy weaponry and what it says is the final letter to his mother from an American journalist the group beheaded.

The article on slavery confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes...READ MORE

"Let’s not feed Islamophobic bigotry... The great divide is not between faiths, but one between intolerant zealots of any tradition and the large numbers of decent, peaceful believers likewise found in each tradition." Nicholas Kristof

Cultural diversity is a driving force of development... an asset that is indispensable for poverty reduction and the achievement of sustainable development:  Do One Thing For Diversity and Inclusion a facebook page

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/opinion/nicholas-kristof-the-diversity-of-islam.html?ref=opinion

The Diversity of Islam

by Nicholas Kristof

A few days ago, I was on a panel on Bill Maher’s television show on HBO that became a religious war.

Whether or not Islam itself inspires conflict, debates about it certainly do. Our conversation degenerated into something close to a shouting match and went viral on the web. Maher and a guest, Sam Harris, argued that Islam is dangerous yet gets a pass from politically correct liberals, while the actor Ben Affleck denounced their comments as “gross” and “racist.” I sided with Affleck.

After the show ended, we panelists continued to wrangle on the topic for another hour with the cameras off. Maher ignited a debate that is rippling onward, so let me offer three points of nuance.

First, historically, Islam was not particularly intolerant, and it initially elevated the status of women. Anybody looking at the history even of the 20th century would not single out Islam as the bloodthirsty religion; it was Christian/Nazi/Communist Europe and Buddhist/Taoist/Hindu/atheist Asia that set records for mass slaughter.

Likewise, it is true that the Quran has passages hailing violence, but so does the Bible... READ MORE

REZA ASLAN: "No religion exists in a vacuum. On the contrary, every faith is rooted in the soil in which it is planted. It is a fallacy to believe that people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their Scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, nationalistic and even political perspectives." 

Last Thursday, the United Nations released a report that could provide us with one of the keys to defeating ISIS. Unfortunately, it received almost zero media attention.

"... this fight is not Islam versus the West. Rather, it’s everyone who doesn’t want to live under ISIS’ brutal dictatorship versus ISIS." 

Dean Obeidallah @Deanofcomedy 

Who is ISIS killing the most of by far? Muslims. But that fact is barely covered by US media. 

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/07/isis-s-gruesome-muslim-death-toll.html

ISIS’s Gruesome Muslim Death Toll

The group’s killing of Westerners gets attention. But ISIS has killed far more Muslims, and publicizing that fact would harm it more.

 

Last Thursday, the United Nations released a report that could provide us with one of the keys to defeating ISIS. Unfortunately, it received almost zero media attention.

What makes this 26-page report (PDF) so powerful is that it describes to us the gruesome circumstances in which ISIS has killed fellow Muslims. We are talking beheadings, killing of women for objecting to ISIS’ policies, and executing Sunni Muslim clerics for refusing to swear allegiance to ISIS.

Why is this important? This information can hopefully help dissuade other Muslims from joining or financially supporting ISIS. And it may even persuade other Muslim countries to join or increase their efforts in fighting ISIS. The reason being that slaughtering fellow Muslims is seen as universally wrong across the Muslim world and as a violation of Islamic values. In fact, Al Qaeda has even publicly criticized ISIS for this very conduct.

Now the report also details ISIS’ horrific actions against Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities. But these events—along with the grisly beheadings of American journalists and Western aid workers- have been covered extensively by our media.

The killing of Muslims has not, and part of the reason may be because we lacked facts surrounding those events. After all, ISIS releases videos of its gruesome actions that it wants the world media to discuss but doesn’t publicize events it understands can hurt its cause.

This report changes that. It provides us with evidence we were missing about the specifics of ISIS’ actions...READ MORE

Tala Haikal: "It may not be possible to immediately free all the kidnapped girls and women due to the scope of the conflict with ISIS and the geographical dispersal of the captives in various locations. Some of these women and girls can be freed only once ISIS is destroyed."

Haikal is a Middle East analyst at the American Task Force on Palestine, a think tank in Washington, DC. She tweets @talamay.

"ISIS has kidnapped an estimated 4,000 Iraqi girls and women from Yazidi and other minority groups for the purpose of selling them to locals or donating them to loyal jihadists. Sadly this is not unique -- traces of sexual slavery are still evident in various parts of the world, despite legislation prohibiting it -- but these crimes are being committed on an extraordinary scale by ISIS. While these barbaric rapists are fulfilling their sexual perversions the world is silently watching. Instead, the international community must work to free the Iraqi women and bring accountability to the chronically neglected issue of the victimization of women in wars.

The kidnapped women and girls are generally separated into small groups. Their price varies between $25 and $1000. Some are as young as 12 years old.  ISIS has beheaded 17 of them. There have been at least 11 reported cases of suicide, according to an email response from the Human Rights Department at Iraq’s Foreign Ministry to this writer. As described by Liz Sly of the Washington Post, only a conversion to Islam can “upgrade” the status of these captives from prison inmates to “comfort wives.”"

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http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/219595-isis-and-sexual-slavery

ISIS and sexual slavery