Slutspel i Irak? ISIS och allierade erövrar Mosul

Ominously for the future of this ethnically and religiously mixed area, the men now direct their anger and grief toward Arab Muslims from Sinjar and its nearby villages.

“There are Arabs around us,” says Matto, “and those Arabs took our women, took our children, killed our men.”

None of the Yazidis I spoke with over two days in the area drew any distinction between ISIS fighters and the Arab families who stayed on in ISIS-held areas. But many Iraqis who share ISIS’ Sunni Muslim faith say they live under the extremists’ rule simply because they have nowhere else to go.

“In those Arab villages are innocent people,” says Hassan Alaf, a Sunni Muslim who used to serve in the provincial council in the nearby city of Mosul. “But we know that in any war, and especially in those areas, most of the people are tribal, whether Arab or Kurd or Yazidi. Second, the tribes in most of these areas use acts of revenge.”

And so, he warns: “There will be a violent battle in this area.”