Iraqi army discovers Daesh-made prison for Yazidi women
The Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that the country’s military forces have discovered a detention facility in the western Mosul, where members of the Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group used to intern women from the Yazidi minority group.
The prison was found in the recently-liberated 17th Tammuz neighborhoods of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, one of the districts which Iraqi forces have recaptured from the militants since it launched an offensive in February to retake the western side of the city, a statement by the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the building also incorporated a so-called judicial tribunal, where army soldiers could recover dozens of classified papers.
The official added that Daesh had installed a comprehensive CCTV surveillance system across the building for the principal purposes of keeping an eye on the movements of the female detainees.
At least 9,900 of Iraq’s Yazidis were killed or kidnapped in just days in an Islamic State attack in 2014, according to a rare study that documented the number of Yazidis affected.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.
