SINJAR, IRAQ | BY ISABEL COLES
The picnic tables on the mountainside overlooking the town of Sinjar are a vestige of a time when different communities lived side by side in this corner of northwestern Iraq.
That was before Islamic State militants overran the area in August last year, purging its Yazidi population and turning neighbor against neighbor. The town was retaken last week, but the damage to relations between its former inhabitants may be irreparable.
Empty pick-up trucks descend to the town and return laden with everything from satellite dishes to tricycles pillaged from the homes of Sunni Muslims whom Yazidis accuse of collaborating in the atrocities committed against them.
"This is our neighbor's house," said a young Yazidi man, tying a set of sofas to the back of a red pick-up truck. "I've come to take his belongings, and now I'm going to blow up his house."
The Yazidi, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted he had no real use for the sofas, but could always chop them down for firewood this winter: "I will warm myself on the fire of revenge."
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