KIRKUK - Residents of the village of Bashir worry they will not be able to go back home anytime soon because of the massive destruction caused by the war with Islamic State (ISIS), a local official told Rudaw. “Bashir has 1200 houses and now 85 percent of them are ruined,” Nazim Zangana, a local official of the region, told Rudaw. “We are asking Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government to help people of the village to return to their homes.” Yadgar Khalil, a resident of Bashir, told Rudaw that they are waiting for the government’s support before going back to the ruined village. “We want to go back home but the whole village is destroyed so where should we go?” he said. Another resident, Alamdar Mohamad, asked the Kurdistan Regional Government to help the people as “they have previously supported Bashir residents by liberating their village,” from Islamic State (ISIS) militants. Houses, schools, health clinics, shops and streets have been destroyed in the Shiite-Turkman village. Bashir was occupied by ISIS militants before they were driven out by the Kurdish Peshmerga and some Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militiamen early last month. Bashir initially fell to ISIS back in June 2014 after the groups successful takeover of Mosul and large swaths of northwestern Iraq. Before ISIS came it was the largest farming village in Kirkuk province.
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