Many houses belonging to Kurds in the city of Tuz Khurmatu, still lie in ruins as the families have not returned home nor have they been compensated since the October events of 2017 when Iraqi federal forces took over all disputed territories from the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga.

Some of the households remain torched while others have been demolished or blown up.

The multi-ethnic town of Tuz Khurmatu is in Saladin province about 155 kilometers south of the Kurdistan Region’s capital city of Erbil. 

Tuz is a disputed or Kurdistani territory claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad. It is ethnically mixed with Kurds, Shiite Turkmen and Arabs.

The Iraqi parliament voted to establish a multi-ethnic committee to investigate events that took place in Tuz Khurmatu after the city came under the control of Iraqi forces supported by some Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias and militias in October 2017.

A Rudaw field investigation in November 2017 found that thousands of houses in Kurdish neighborhoods had been looted, burned and bombed, or appear to have been appropriated by the Iraqi forces.

Thousands of Kurds from Tuz Khurmatu are sheltering in the Kurdistan Region, still unable to return to their homes.

The Parliament of the Kurdistan Region has called the atrocities a “genocide.”

Amnesty International has noted testimony of “indiscriminate fire launched into crowds of Kurdish residents fleeing the city.”

Photos by Hiwa Hussamedin