And as it often happens in Iraq in times of internal turbulence, a general wave of looting swept the north. Assyrian villages were looted by Kurdish and Arab tribesmen and by neighbouring villages, with the Yezidis joining the Kurds and Arabs in this general free-for-all. Sixty Assyrian villages, according to Stafford, were looted in this way and completely or partially destroyed, resulting in a total estimated loss to the Assyrians of at least £50,000. Stafford, however, also records that there was not a single act of aggression against any Assyrian village until 8 August, even the defenceless villages of the men who had gone to Syria with Yaqu not being touched before this date.1 Still, some of the acts committed by the Iraqis subsequent to the attack on them and to their discovery of the atrocities committed by the Assyrians are nothing but black and terrible. But even these were to pale beside what was to happen at Summayl.