 The Iraqi army led by Bakr Sidqi , an experienced brigadier general of Kurdish ethnicity , moved north in order to crush the Assyrians once and for all . They started executing every Assyrian male found in the mountainous Bekher region between Zakho and Duhok starting from 8 August . Assyrian civilians were transported in military trucks from Zakho and Dohuk to uninhabited places in batches of eight or ten where they were shot with machine guns and run over by heavy armoured cars to make sure no one survived . 
