2 Yazidis running liquor store killed in Mosul

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: Two Yazidis running a liquor store were killed in a gun attack in northern Mosul city, a local police source said on Sunday. “On Sunday, unknown gunmen shot down two persons from the Yazidi community inside their liquor store in al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiyya area (northern Mosul),” the source told IraqiNews.com. The store had been attacked with explosive devices, the source noted, providing no further details. Sinjar, 120 km northwest of Mosul, is inhabited by Yazidis, a religious minority whose followers are generally situated in northern Iraq. Some 350,000 Yazidis live in villages around Mosul, 402 km north of Baghdad. The Yazidi faith is not a missionary religion. According to figures released by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there is an estimated 800,000 Yazidis all over the world, including 550,000 in Iraq. Yazidis in Iraq are concentrated in the district of Sinjar, where the temple Lalesh is considered the holiest shrine for Yazidis, the district of al-Shaykhan (50 km north of Mosul), the district of Bueshiqa (15 km east of Mosul) and some other areas and villages in the provinces of Ninewa and Duhuk. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. SS (S) 1