Now Ali and his family are among the tens of thousands of Yazidis scattered around camps for their displaced community in Kurdish-controlled territory. They are dreaming of returning home as Kurdish and Iraqi forces push IS from their lands in an offensive to oust the group from Mosul, the last major population centre it controls in the country. “They did a lot of bad things to the Yazidi community and especially to the women, they took them as slaves,” Mahmud's sister-in-law, Solaf Hossein, said. - 'Long to go back' - ===================== In terms of the tragedy inflicted on their community, the Mahmud family can almost be considered lucky. “But hand in hand the Yazidis will continue to rebuild the community again and God willing through cooperation it will come back.

Source: Sunday Times November 18, 2016 17:08 UTC