• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

40,000 Yazidis stranded on mountain as Islamic State jihadists threaten death

Aug 6, 2014 10:16 am By Robert Spencer

Yazidis“The Kurdish minority Yazidis have long been regarded as devil worshippers by Sunni jihadists who have targeted them since the US invasion. As the extremists’ latest and most potent incarnation, the Islamic State, has steadily conquered Iraq’s north, the small, self-contained community has been especially vulnerable.” But despite the UNICEF hand-wringing in this story, the international human rights community is unlikely to take any significant action. To take such action would require an all-out war against the Islamic State, and no one wants that or is in a position to undertake it.

An update on this story. “40,000 Iraqis stranded on mountain as Isis jihadists threaten death,” by Martin Chulov, the Guardian, August 6, 2014:

Tens of thousands of members of one of Iraq’s oldest minorities have been stranded on a mountain in the country’s north-west, facing slaughter at the hands of jihadists surrounding them below if they flee, or death by dehydration if they stay.

UN groups say at least 40,000 members of the Yazidi sect, many of them women and children, have taken refuge in nine locations on Mount Sinjar, a craggy mile-high ridge line identified in local legend as the final resting place of Noah’s ark.

At least 130,000 more people, many from the Yazidi stronghold of Sinjar, have fled to Dohuk, in the Kurdish north, or to Erbil, where regional authorities have been struggling since June to deal with one of the biggest and most rapid refugee movements in decades.

Sinjar itself has been all but emptied of its 300,000 residents since jihadists stormed the city late on Saturday – but an estimated 25,000 people remain. “We are being told to convert, or to lose our heads,” said Khuldoon Atyas, who has stayed behind to guard his family’s crops. “There is no one coming to help.”

Another man, who is hiding in the mountains and identified himself as Nafi’ee, said: “Food is low, ammunition is low and so is water. We have one piece of bread to share between 10 people. We have to walk 2km (1.2 miles) to get water. There were some air strikes yesterday (against the jihadists). But they have made no difference.”

At least 500 Yazidis, among them 40 children, have been killed in the past week, local officials say. Many more have received direct threats, either from the advancing militants, or members of nearby Sunni communities allied with them. “They were our neighbours and now they are our killers,” said Mr Atyas.

“It’s not like this is a one-off incident,” said UNICEF spokeswoman Juliette Touma of the latest exodus. “We are almost back to square zero in terms of the preparedness and the supplies. Enormous numbers of people have been crossing the border since June.

“The stresses are enormous; dehydration, fatigue, people sometimes having to walk for days. The impact on kids is very physical, let alone the psychological impact.”

The Kurdish miniority [sic] Yazidis have long been regarded as devil worshippers by Sunni jihadists who have targeted them since the US invasion. As the extremists’ latest and most potent incarnation, the Islamic State, has steadily conquered Iraq’s north, the small, self-contained community has been especially vulnerable.

Isis forces have continued to advance across north-western Iraq almost unchecked ever since a small band of hardline extremists stormed Iraq’s second city Mosul on 10 June, sending the Iraqi army fleeing and crumbling the central government’s control.

Flush with weapons looted from Iraqi arsenals, the group sacked Tikrit, and advanced on Kirkuk. And, with new recruits lured or pressganged along the way, it has since captured five oil fields, three cities, an 800-mile stretch of border with Syria, menaced the capital, Baghdad, and is now within striking distance of Iraq’s two largest dams.

“The situation is slowly tipping in their favour,” said Dr Hisham al-Hashimi, Iraq’s leading expert on Isis. “They won’t take the dam near Mosul, but Haditha (at the epicentre of Iraq’s water and energy supply grid) will be very hard to defend.

“They are very close to Baghdad airport. If they breached the perimeter, even with a symbolic attack, it would be enormous propaganda value for them.”

Iraq’s beleagured military has been unable to muster a meaningful push-back against the jihadists and is under intense pressure to support the Yazidis with air strikes and food drops. A series of spectacular defeats has seriously eroded its credibility.
Yazidi members demonstrate outside UN offices in Erbil Yazidi members demonstrate outside UN offices in Erbil against the Isis violence. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

Kurdish Peshmurga troops, long regarded as a more formidable fighting force, had been defending Sinjar. But they too have been forced to withdraw as Isis advanced. Kurdish officials say their forces were seriously outgunned by the jihadists who were using heavy weapons looted from Iraqi bases.

The same weapons are being used to consolidate Isis’s hold on much of western Iraq. The group has also significantly boosted its numbers by tapping into Iraq’s estranged Sunni population, which had been marginalised by the Shia majority government since the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein more than 11 years ago.

“I would say there are now between 30,000-50,000 of them,” said al-Hashimi of Isis forces. “Of those, I would say 30% are ideologues. The others have joined out of fear or coercion.”

The once dominant US military and powerful embassy now plays next to no role in Iraq, with Iraqi militias reporting to Iranian generals increasingly taking the lead in the fight against the jihadists.

“Iraq is spiraling out of control,” said Ali Khedery, the former longest-serving US official in Baghdad. “The centrifugal forces are spinning so quickly. They are on one timeline and Washington is on another. I am beyond concerned.”

Khedery, who reported to five US ambassadors and three US Central Command commanders and is now chairman of the Dubai-based consultancy Dragoman Partners said: “Everybody is retreating to their corners. And there is no credible international actor that I can see that is trying to bring it together again.

“It definitely is an existential threat to the Iraqi government and I think it represents yet another manifestation of the disintegration of Iraq as we know it.

“Iranian overreach, the genocide in Syria, (Nouri) al-Maliki’s consolidation of power in a very sectarian way have all led to the disillusionment, the disenfranchisement of the Sunni Arabs who have fatally, but perhaps understandably, chosen to consummate a deal with the devil. Now we are locked in a race to the bottom.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Non-Muslims in Muslim countries Tagged With: featured


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Jay Boo says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 10:28 am

    “500 Yazidis, among them 40 children, have been killed in the past week”
    —————————————————————

    We need to find a way to make this (Palestinian style) politically correct and fashionable to the MSM and leftists.
    If the IDF were involved it would surely be major news.

  2. AnneM says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 10:29 am

    The REAL devil worshipers are the Muslims!

  3. Jay Boo says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 10:30 am

    Islam is truly a cesspool.

  4. Jaladhi says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 10:35 am

    Why there is no outcry against Muslims for perpetrating genocide on various non -Muslims in Middle-east. Everyone is keeping quiet – even all those human rights organizations who always jump in support of Muslims on any imagined injustices to Muslims have nothing to say. Hypocrites – and that includes USA anfd the rest of the West.

    Stop all Muslim immigration and allow these Muslim persecuted people in US and West

    • Beagle says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 11:34 am

      “genocide”

      Indeed. Large-scale 1948 Convention violations taking place on a daily basis. Remember when Srebrenica seemed like a big deal? It’s a typical fortnight in Iraq and Syria.

  5. Gail Griffin says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 11:19 am

    Kehdery is a brilliant graphic writer. This is 1938 incemt the Mideast. Everyone in their corners. They surely are on a race to the bottom. Without a strong country coming to the rescue the Muslim nations will have to make some hard decisions. Islamization or a decent life.

  6. Beagle says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 11:31 am

    If the border is “Obama’s Katrina,” then the IS situation in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria is rapidly becoming Obama’s Rwanda.

    • John C. Barile says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 12:25 pm

      Even so, look at this–a nation is being born, with Kurds from Turkey, Syria, and the Kurdish Autonomous Region rallying to support their Yazidi kinsmen:

      http:wwwfrance24.com/en/20140806-kurds-iraq-jihadists-rescue-yazidis-minority/

  7. John C. Barile says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    Once again:

    http://www.france24.com/en/20140804-kurds-iraq-jihadists-rescue-yazidi-minority/

  8. Thomas Wells says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:53 pm

    This would be a good place for a “flying fence” with lots of napalm,gunships,armed drones, as well as air drops of supplies.

    • John C. Barile says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 1:32 pm

      Apart from the Kurds–see above–who have none of those things you suggest, no one anywhere has the will, the cohones, to do anything about this.

      Certainly not Mr. Obama or Mr. Cameron.

      • Thomas Wells says

        Aug 6, 2014 at 7:46 pm

        Put an ad on Craig’s list : Wanted non sissy, non official, non NGO ; to kick in a few bucks for the use or rental of a few airplanes and some various supplies for vacation overseas. To paraphrase Edmond Burke- The best way to fail is not to try.

  9. zulu says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 1:17 pm

    ISIS Executes Yazidi Men, Kidnaps Children and Takes Women for Jihad Marriage

    http://www.ibtimes.co.in/isis-executes-yazidi-men-kidnaps-children-takes-women-jihad-marriage-606110

  10. Rajivi says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 1:58 pm

    An ISIS militant announces his marriage with a 7 yr old girl (of course, a Kaffir)..in Syria..

    http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/isis-militant-announces-his-marriage-to-terrified-7-year-old-in-occupied-city-syria/

    • Gardener says

      Aug 7, 2014 at 8:30 am

      I think it’s very important to stick to the facts, and the link you provided is a fake story. Fake stories make people even less inclined to accept hearing the truth about Islam later. They will dismiss the truth as fake too, especially if they’ve been fed fake stories before by those who oppose Islam.

      The picture is a still image from a video of a Qur’an recitation contest where the girl made a mistake, felt embarrassed and started to cry. The ISIS member in the picture is the host. He consoled her after she started to cry. At the end of the video she received a gift package for her performance.

  11. eib says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 8:55 pm

    Jesus Christ, Son of God, stretch out your hand and protect these people and melt the hearts of the indifferent world.
    For your Holy Name’s sake, protect these people.
    They are surrounded by the profanity of ISLAM.

  12. Sarah L Nield says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 10:44 am

    “500 Yazidis, among them 40 children, have been killed in the past week”

    I have e-mailed (the latest of many) these facts to the Socialist Worker’s Party sight and RESPECT party, Stop The War Coalition, and others with a suggestion to arrange a march in solidarity with the victims of terror.
    I have been blocked from the SWP sight and ignored by RESPECT and the Stop The War Coalition.
    But then what can you expect from the new Nazis?

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 7, 2014 at 9:56 pm

      I’m afraid none of this surprises me, Sarah.

  13. Linda Rivera says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    Iraq was a STABLE country before the U.S. intervened and waged war in Iraq. The country has been transformed into a living hell. The world’s innocents can only hope that the U.S. will not intervene — will not wage wars in any more countries because the results are always destructive and horrifying.

    Dear God, please help all the innocents in Iraq to escape from the bloodthirsty monsters – who appear to almost have been let loose from hell itself.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 7, 2014 at 10:01 pm

      Linda can pretend that the civilized United States is responsible for this genocide and chaos, but it’s bs.

      Sure, we made a lot of mistakes there—mostly in assuming that any part of Dar-al-Islam can become a civilized nation.

      This is Islam in action,when it is unrestrained by any civilizing influence.

  14. Linda Rivera says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 3:12 pm

    A WARNING to all Western nations who have imported muslims, especially Britain and Europe whose traitor leaders have colonised each one of our tiny nations with many millions of muslims:

    “They were our neighbours and now they are our killers,” said Mr Atyas.

  15. gravenimage says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    40,000 Yazidis stranded on mountain as Islamic State jihadists threaten death
    ………………………….

    More genocide from the “Caliphate”. This sanguinary horror is what pious Muslims consider to be the implementation of “divine law”—Shari’ah.

    What they consider “ordained by Allah” the rest of us consider *hell on earth*.

  16. dumbledoresarmy says

    Aug 8, 2014 at 3:14 am

    This reminds me of something.

    Something that happened during the Muslim mass-murder of the Armenian (and Assyrian, and Greek) Christians in Turkey.

    A story – a *true* story – told in Franz Werfel’s searing novel, Forty Days of Musa Dagh.

    http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Days-Musa-Verba-Mundi/dp/1567924077

    “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is Franz Werfel’s masterpiece that brought him international acclaim in 1933, drawing the world’s attention to the Armenian genocide. This is the story of how the people of several Armenian villages in the mountains along the coast of present-day Turkey and Syria chose not to obey the deportation order of the Turkish government. Instead, they fortified a plateau on the slopes of Musa Dagh Mount Moses and repelled Turkish soldiers and military police during the summer of 1915 while holding out hope for the warships of the Allies to save them. ”

    http://www.armenian-genocide.org/musa_dagh.html

    “…Their only hope was a chance rescue by an Allied vessel that might be patrolling the Mediterranean coast.

    “When two large banners hoisted by the Armenians were sighted by a passing French warship, swimmers went out to meet it.

    “**Eventually five Allied ships moved in to transport the entire population of men, women, and children, more than four thousand in all….** {my emphasis – dda}”.

    France, Germany, Canada, Australia, the USA, even Russia, need to be sent this story, with the challenge: there are the Yazidis, **and there are the desperately-imperilled Christians who have been driven out of Mosul and now out of Qaraqosh…

    **can you not do for them what was done for the embattled Armenian Christians of Musa Dagh??**.

    And here is yet another story to inspire, also from the dark maelstrom of the Muslim jihad genocide of the Armenian and Assyrian Christians. A story that all the generals of all the armies of the Infidel Western World need to have placed before them, with the question: If young Captain Stanley Savige could do *this*, why cannot you, with infinitely greater resources, do **More**??

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/30190

    Great Australians, I: The Knight. Lt Gen Sir Stanley Savige, Defender of Assyrian Christians

    Here is what he did:

    ‘For six weeks Captain Stanley Savige used all the means at his disposal to protect the refugees against the perpetual onslaught of the Turkish forces. [That is: of the bent-on-genocide Mohammedan murderers – dda]
    ‘Reasoning that the Turkish commander would concentrate on killing him before harming the refugees, he strategically placed his command at the rear of the refugee procession and deliberately drew enemy fire.

    ‘By offering his command as a target, **even though outnumbered one hundred to one** [oh. my. god. – dda], the captain managed to slow the Turkish [that is: the turkish MUSLIM – DDA] advance long enough for most of the refugees to flee. ”

    If he could do *that*, just one lowly captain and his troop…what could our much greater forces do, if they applied themselves, today, to just. one. objective: making possible, and securing, the safe and swift exit, from Iraq and from Syria, of every last non-Muslim – Christian, Yazidi, Mandaean?

    Where is our Operation Saint Michael and Saint George??

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • OLD GUY on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • Boycott Turkey on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • Michael Copeland on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Michael Copeland on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Westman on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.