Heydarabad and Sahin Ghal Massacre (1918)

Massacres during the Journey to Hamadan 
In 1918, as Assyrian refugees fled towards Hamadan, they were relentlessly attacked by Kurdish irregulars, likely under the direction of local Kurdish leaders Simko and Sayyid Taha. Many Assyrians died from exhaustion due to the harsh conditions of the journey. Numerous were killed near Heydarabad, and an estimated 5,000 were massacred during a surprise ambush near the Sahin Ghal'e mountain pass by a combined force of Ottoman troops and Kurdish irregulars.Kévorkian 2011, pp. 744–745.Koohi-Kamali 2003, p. 77.Gaunt 2020, p. 80.

 Refugee Camp at Baqubah 
The surviving Assyrians, dependent on British protection, were relocated to a refugee camp in Baqubah near Baghdad. By October 1918, the camp held approximately fifteen thousand Armenians and thirty-five thousand Assyrians.Kévorkian 2011, pp. 744–745.Hellot 2003, p. 139. Conditions were dire, with poor sanitation and scarce resources, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 7,000 Assyrians within the camp.Kévorkian 2011, pp. 744–745.

Despite repeated requests from the British government to allow Assyrian refugees to return to their homes, the Persian authorities refused, prolonging their displacement and suffering.Kévorkian 2011, pp. 744–745.

 References 

 Sources 
 Kévorkian, Raymond (2011). The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85771-930-0.
 Koohi-Kamali, Farideh (2003). The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran: Pastoral Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-230-53572-5.
 Gaunt, David (2020). The Long Assyrian Genocide. In Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78920-451-3.
 Hellot, Florence (2003). "La fin d'un monde: les assyro-chaldéens et la première guerre mondiale". In Chrétiens du monde arabe: un archipel en terre d'Islam. Autrement. ISBN 978-2-7467-0390-2.