Will Obama now return and tell the nation that his August boast was hollow? Somehow I doubt it.
“ISIS Takes Over Two Towns On Mount Sinjar, Yazidis Plead For US Coalition To Save Them,” by Erin Banco, International Business Times, October 20, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
The Islamic State group has taken over two towns on Sinjar Mountain Monday, indicating that the Sunni militant group is advancing on territory that the U.S. had said that it had secured during its airstrikes on the region back in August. U.S. officials warned months ago that if ISIS militants succeed in advancing this far, the Yazidi population could be at risk of “a potential genocide.”
U.S. airstrikes on the area in August seemed to have secured the region. “The situation on the mountain has greatly improved,” President Obama said in am Aug. 15 speech. “We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar. We saved many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect an additional operation to help rescue people off the mountain, and it is unlikely that we are going to need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain.”
But the Washington Post reported Monday that Yazidi volunteers who have been protecting the area for more than two months retreated from villages north of the mountain after the extremists attacked. The volunteers said they had pulled back to a shrine on the mountain but the militants were close by….