SINJAR, Iraq - Yazidis returning to their homes in the Sinjar district of Iraq have demanded international intervention to protect them from the ongoing Turkish bombing.

Since 2017, near 80 Yazidi people were killed by Turkish airstrike, 64 of them from Sinjar Resistance Units which is formally affiliated with Popular Unites, according to a high ranking military officer in YBS.

Saad Hamo is a young Yazidi who was forced to leave south Sinjar and settle in Mount Sinjar after the Islamic State (IS) invaded the district, forcing thousands of Yazidis into displacement, but not before committing what the UN believed was a “genocide” against them and other Iraqi components.

Many Yazidis were reluctant to return to their homes amid the ongoing Turkish attacks under the pretext of attacking Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) sites, Hamo told Al-Monitor. In the Sardashti camp for displaced Yazidis, “These people did not leave Sinjar despite all the tragedy that befell them, and we are looking for other ways to convince those who remain in the displacement camps in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to return.”