The Sinjar District or the Shingal District (, ) is a district of the

Nineveh Governorate Nineveh Governorate (; , ) is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an area of and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people as of 2003. Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of a ...

. The district seat is the town of Sinjar. The district has two subdistricts, al-Shemal and al-Qayrawan. The district is one of two major population centers for

Yazidis Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish languages, Kurdish-speaking Endogamy, endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The major ...

, the other being Shekhan District.

History

Sinjar District was created in 1934 by Royal decree. After the 1935 Yazidi revolt, the district was placed under military control.Article title
/ref>Fuccaro, Nelinda
''Ethnicity, State Formation, and Conscription in Postcolonial Iraq: The Case of the Yazidi Kurds of Jabal Sinjar''
International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 29, No. 4 (November 1997), pp. 559–580. The al-Shamal district, originally formed in 1936, was abolished in 1987, and its area was added to Sinjar. Qayrawan was formed as a district in 1977, was also abolished in 1987, and was added to the district. In 1994, al-Shamal and Qayrawan were reformed as a sub-districts. In 2007, several explosions set off by ISI killed hundreds of

in Shengal. In August 2014, the Siege of Mount Sinjar raged between Sunni militants of the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL) and the Kurdish

Peshmerga The Peshmerga () are the internal security forces of Kurdistan Region. According to the Constitution of Iraq, regional governments are responsible for "the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as p ...

, leading to a mass exodus of residents, especially from the Yazidi community, branded by the Islamic State as "devil worshippers", after the Peshmerga was defeated. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that ISIL killed dozens of Yazidi men and forced their women to marry jihadi fighters." According to Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil, an estimated 6,383 Yazidi women and children were taken as sex slaves by

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

/ISIL. According to Kurdish sources, nine Yazidi mass graves had been found by the end of the offensive. Eighteen Yazidi shrines have also been destroyed by

militants since June 2014. As additional graves were found, masked Yazidis retaliated against assumed ISIL collaborators in four Muslim villages in late January 2015 with Sibaya and Chiri attacked on January 25 and Khazuga and Sayer on January 26. PKK, YPG and YPJ joint forces were able to stop additional attacks on two more villages after Peshmerga fled the area. It was announced on October 17, 2017, that the area had returned to Iraqi government control.

Geography

The Sinjar District borders and is a crossing point with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

.A map of its borders is to be found on page 36 of: The district is 136 km from Mosul city, the capital of the

. The

Sinjar Mountains The Sinjar Mountains (, , ), are a mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surrounding alluvial steppe plains in northwestern Iraq to an elevation of . The highest segment of these mountains, about long, lies in the Nineveh Gov ...

are located in the district.

Economy

The district's economy is primarily based on agriculture with the main crops being barley, figs, wheat, and tobacco. In the villages of Ain al-Ghazal and Hayali exist oil fields, which were closed because of the Iraq war. Natural gas and heavy minerals exist in the

Settlements

* Ain al-Ghazal, Sunni * Bahrava, Yezidi * Bare, Yezidi * Borek, Yezidi * Chiri Yezidi * Dohula, Yezidi * Duguri, Yezidi * Gir Azêr (also Til Ezer), Yezidi * Gohbal, Yezidi * Hayali Yezidi * Khana Sor, Yezidi * Khazuga, Sunni * Majnuniyê, Yezidi * Qayrawan or Qairouan, also called Balij or Bulayj, Sunni * Sayer, Sunni * Sîba Şêx Xidir, Yezidi * Shingal, Yezidi, seat of the district * Sinone (also Sinuni), Yezidi, seat of Al-Shamal subdistrict * Sibaya, Sunni * Solagh, Yezidi * Wardiyê/Zirafki, Yezidi * Zorava, Yezidi * Hardan, Yezidi others: * Adîke ئادیکە * Dihil * Kersê کەرسێ * Koço * Rifeyi * Sinun * Gura / Isdêra Şimalê * Telezêr * Tel Qeseb * Tel Benat * Qabusî * Xalabazar

References

{{Districts of Iraq Districts of Nineveh Governorate

History

Geography

Economy

Settlements

See also

References