The small farming community of Jurf Al-Sakhar lies in Iraq’s south, to the East of Fallujah in the Euphrates River Valley. A decade of disenfranchisement targeting the Sunni community meant that when ISIS arrived here in 2014, many of the locals sought their protection. The problem was that Jurf Al-Sakhar lies in strategic territory on a pilgrimage route used by Shia religious pilgrims to travel to Karbala, a city with ...