Yazidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh dies at 87
Nobel laureate Nadia Murad described him as "a beacon of light."
Members of the Yazidi faith are mourning the loss of Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, the spiritual leader of their ancient religious minority.
Baba Sheikh died Thursday at the age of 87 from health complications, his office said. He was hospitalized on Tuesday in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, for kidney and heart issues.
The Yazidis are a mainly Kurdish-speaking minority whose religion combines elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam and features a fallen angel as its central figure.
The Islamic State, which considered the Yazidis devil worshippers, overran their ancestral homeland of Sinjar in August 2014. The group killed thousands of Yazidi men and kidnapped more than 64,000 women and children in what the United Nations would later call a genocide.
