US Stands with Kurdish Yezidis: State Department Spokesperson

The US has reaffirmed its support for Yezidis in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, saying that it "stands with" the minority religious group in mourning for the family members and friends massacred by the Islamic State (IS) in 2014.

The remains of at least 104 Kurdish Yezidis, previously found in mass graves by the UN Investigation Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD) cooperatively with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government of Iraq, were returned to Kocho village of Sinjar town and reburied during a special ceremony on Saturday.

"The United States stands with the Yezidis in mourning for their community members massacred by ISIS six years ago," a spokesperson for the US Department of State said in a statement.

"The evidence that UNITAD gathered from the site will help achieve justice for those who suffered from the horrors of ISIS."

The US government, since the creation of UNITAD in 2017, has allocated almost $9 million to its budget in efforts to collect, preserve, as well as store, evidence of the Islamic State "atrocities," the spokesperson added.

In mid-2014, the Islamic State jihadist group attacked Sinjar, where it abducted over 6,000 Yezidis, the majority of whom were women and children, despite the fact that the militants killed hundreds of civilians.