Sinjar

Overview

Sinjar is a city and district in northwestern Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate and a historic home of the Yazidis. The district and nearby Mount Sinjar have long provided refuge within the Mesopotamian landscape. Sinjar became the center of the Yazidi genocide after the Islamic State invaded on August 3, 2014. Its fighters killed thousands of Yazidis, abducted and enslaved women and children, and drove tens of thousands from their homes. Kurdish and Yazidi forces, aided by United States-led coalition airstrikes, liberated the city in November 2015. The end of Islamic State rule did not restore normal life: destroyed homes, mass graves, rival armed forces and insecure roads continued to shape Sinjar and impede residents’ return.

Geography

Sinjar lies west of Mosul, near Iraq’s border with Syria. Mount Sinjar rises beside the city and became a refuge during the 2014 assault. The district’s position also gives it strategic value. The Islamic State used a route through the area to connect Mosul with Raqqa; Sinjar’s liberation cut that main supply line. For the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Sinjar provided a link between its base in the Qandil Mountains and affiliated forces in Syria. Competition over those routes has contributed to armed groups’ continued presence.

Modern history

After Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in 2003, forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party established control over Sinjar. Its Peshmerga held the district before the Islamic State’s assault. On August 3, 2014, thousands of Peshmerga withdrew as Islamic State fighters advanced, leaving Yazidi residents exposed. The retreat damaged Yazidi confidence in the forces that had controlled the area.

The invasion began the Sinjar massacre and a wider genocidal campaign. Islamic State fighters massacred more than 5,000 Yazidis, abducted and enslaved thousands of women and children, burned homes, looted property, destroyed shrines and devastated Yazidi villages. Tens of thousands fled the district. Many sought shelter on Mount Sinjar, where they lacked food, water and medical care. Estimates of the number who reached the mountain ranged from about 40,000 to 50,000. Others escaped the area altogether. More than 3,200 Yazidi women and children remained enslaved when a United Nations inquiry reported in June 2016.

PKK fighters established a defense line on Mount Sinjar and opened a corridor through which Yazidis could escape. United States airstrikes against Islamic State positions around the mountain enabled more than 20,000 people to leave during August 8–10, 2014. Peshmerga also helped people escape. In mid-December, Peshmerga forces aided by United States airstrikes broke the siege of Mount Sinjar and opened another route for those trapped there. Masoud Barzani described the corridor’s opening as a strategic victory that would aid the liberation of the rest of Sinjar.

The International Coalition, Iraqi army, Peshmerga and Yazidi fighters cleared Islamic State forces from Sinjar by November 2015. The Yazidi Sinjar Resistance Units took part in the liberation. Recapturing the area severed the Islamic State’s main supply route between Mosul and Raqqa. The campaign ended its control of the city, but the destruction left residents facing a long recovery.

Security

The PKK gained a foothold during the 2014 crisis and organized Yazidi volunteers into the Protection Forces of Shingal. It also established the Sinjar Resistance Units, known as the YBS, and the Sinjar Women’s Units. The PKK retained forces in Sinjar after the Islamic State’s defeat despite demands from the Kurdistan Regional Government to withdraw. Yazidis subsequently faced competing influence from the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the PKK. The latter’s position extended its Qandil-based network toward Syria and made Sinjar part of a broader contest over military routes.

Baghdad and Erbil both claimed authority over Sinjar, one of the territories addressed by Article 140 of Iraq’s constitution. The Iraqi government took control of the area after clashes with Peshmerga in 2017. Armed groups nevertheless continued to compete for influence. Popular Mobilization Forces units established positions in the district, including brigades sent in response to a Turkish military threat. Popular Mobilization Forces and PKK leaders also sought a route from Iran’s western border through Sinjar to Syria. During the final phase of the campaign against the Islamic State, Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces reached the Iraqi–Syrian border west of Sinjar.

Competition affected civilian movement and local government. Peshmerga, Iraqi security forces and Popular Mobilization Forces checkpoints restricted travel on the Duhok–Sinjar road in 2018. That November, the road remained closed to civilian traffic after other roads between Kurdistan Regional Government and central government areas reopened. In 2019, the Popular Mobilization Forces’ Imam Ali Brigade blocked Sinjar’s Yazidi district council and mayor from returning to the city. Clashes between the Sinjar Resistance Units and the Iraqi Army in 2022 added to instability. PKK-linked forces, Popular Mobilization Forces militias and Turkish airstrikes continued to hinder displaced residents’ return.

Other formations added to Sinjar’s fragmented security landscape. A Yazidi Popular Mobilization Forces formation called the Lalish regiment was established in areas cleared of Islamic State forces in the south of the district. Popular Mobilization Forces Brigade 80 formed in 2021 from elements of the Sinjar Resistance Units. In February 2022, Ahrar Sinjar publicly claimed a rocket attack on a Turkish base near Mosul and later claimed further attacks on Turkish targets. Its Yazidi name and imagery did not establish it as an independent Yazidi force: evidence connected some attack claims to rocket and drone cells trained by Kata’ib Hezbollah and assisted by Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.

Present day

Mass graves remain evidence of the genocide. After Sinjar’s liberation, a grave containing the bodies of 78 women was found. Iraqi authorities began exhuming a grave of Islamic State victims at Kocho in 2019, the first such exhumation in Sinjar district. By the end of that year, investigators had found 81 mass graves containing more than 2,500 Yazidis across Sinjar and other predominantly Yazidi areas of Nineveh. The graves and the continued absence of abducted Yazidis have made accountability and recovery central concerns for survivors.

Return has been slow. In 2022, Sinjar’s estimated return rate was 35 percent, a figure that included residents who were not Yazidis. More than 330,000 Yazidis were living in displacement camps in Duhok province. Survivors and displaced families faced damaged homes, lost land, limited public services and inadequate security. Nine years after the genocide, many still lacked homes or material compensation and feared renewed fighting among armed groups. Iraq opened a Survivors’ Directorate branch in Sinjar in August 2022 to support survivors. Reconstruction and economic development remained essential to a durable return.

Baghdad and Erbil ratified the Sinjar Agreement in October 2020 to restore security and stability. Its plans included reconstruction, Yazidi returns, removal of PKK forces, appointment of a mayor and creation of a 2,500-member local security force. In September 2026, the Iraqi prime minister’s office announced that the Sinjar Resistance Units had agreed to disarm and that qualified members would enter Iraqi security institutions. The announcement described an agreement and proposed integration, not completed disarmament. Sinjar’s recovery continued to depend on security, reconstruction and the ability of displaced Yazidis to return to their homes.