A series of 4 massive car bombs in the Kurdish area of Iraq, near the Syrian border, killed more than 250 people yesterday. The attacks were aimed at the Yezedi sect, a pre-Islamic religious community that has been persecuted for centuries. Tensions escalated earlier this year however, when a 17-year-old Yezedi girl was stoned to death for falling in love with a Muslim boy and converting to Islam.

Via the New York Times:

The bombs — including at least one rigged to a fuel tanker — detonated in quick succession around 8 p.m. in Qahtaniya and Jazeera, two towns populated mostly by Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking sect that mixes elements of Islam with the teachings of an ancient Persian religion.

The group has long been a minority in Iraq, and after some Yazidis stoned a Yazidi woman to death for dating a Sunni Arab man in April, members of the sect became frequent targets of Sunni attacks. When a video of the Yazidi woman being stoned appeared on the Internet, gunmen stopped minibuses full of Yazidi laborers and killed 23 of them. Many Yazidis have recently moved to villages farther west, where they make up a majority. The deadly assault on Tuesday crushed the hope that there would be safety in numbers — especially near the border with Syria, which American officials have long described as an entry point for foreign fighters.

The Yezedi practice a syncretic religion that has been considered to be devil worship, because they believe that Satan repented of his rebellion against God and was restored to his position as head of the angels. They worship him as a manifestation of God. There are about 500,000 Yazedis living in areas of northern Iraq which the Kurdish autonomous government would like to annex in a referendum set for later this year.

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