ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Security forces in Zakho administration announced late Friday that they found the dead body of the six-year-old Yazidi girl who was killed along with her father earlier this month.
An internally displaced Yazidi man by the name of Faruq Mirza and his daughter Akheen were pronounced missing after leaving their residence in Zakho’s Cham Mshko camp on August 4. Mirza’s body was later found in a farm on Monday, buried in a farmhouse in the district’s Bedar neighborhood.
Head of Zakho’s police Nizar Sulaiman told Rudaw’s Yousif Mousa that they found the dead body of Akheen in the same farm late Friday after days of search.
Police announced the arrest of the main suspect murderer in a Duhok restaurant earlier on Friday, saying he confessed to committing the crime and was in the possession of a number of weapons.
The head of Zakho’s police also said on Friday the arrestee has a criminal precedent, and has been suspected of being behind the disappearance of two other young girls in 2020, adding that the recent killings will reopen the door for investigating the previous cases.
Murad Ismael, a prominent Yazidi activist, said in a tweet on Friday that he demands proper justice for both victims.
Weapon-related crimes are common in the Kurdistan Region where firearms, including sniper rifles and machine guns, are purchased on the black market.
In June, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered the shutdown of all firearms selling markets and the confiscation of unlicensed weapons, in light of the killing of two university academics by a former student days prior.[1]