Syed Shamshad Haider: ISIS targets Yazidi refugees, men slaughtered and women raped by Islamic militants

Friday, August 8, 2014

ISIS targets Yazidi refugees, men slaughtered and women raped by Islamic militants

Baghdad: Desperate to reach tens of thousands of people who fled the Islamist militant takeover of the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar and are now trapped in rugged mountains outside the city, international aid officials and representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government on Wednesday called for the United States to mount a humanitarian mission to reach the beleaguered refugees. It was reported that the 40,000 refugees trapped here face annihilation due to lack of water and food. What’s more terrifying is that the Islamic extremist group ISIS is targeting the refugees trapped here, the men are being slaughtered while women are being raped. With reports indicating that the displaced people were running out of water, a Kurdish security official said that the Iraqi air force lacked the resources needed to deliver enough supplies to ease the crisis. An Iraqi helicopter reportedly dropped some aid on Tuesday, he said, but it was unclear whether that assistance - primarily, bottled water - had reached its target. International aid officials said there is no way to safely approach the area by land. 2 lakh people rendered homeless After the insurgence of ISIS escalated approximately 2 lakh Yazidis took shelter on this mountain. The United Nations said this week that at least 40,000 people, including 25,000 children, were in the Sinjar Mountains with no shelter, food, medical supplies and, most crucially, because of the brutal Iraqi summer heat, drinking water. While the mountains' remoteness and barren terrain offers some protection from the Islamic State, the militants control all approaches to the area. Local news outlets have reported that dozens of children and elderly already have died from dehydration and that thousands more could succumb if massive amounts of aid are not delivered. Efforts to confirm those accounts by dialing the cellphones of people believed to have fled into the mountains failed, most likely because after days without electricity the cellphones' batteries have died. Forty children die due to dehydration orty children from northern Iraq's Yazidi minority are reported to have died as a result of a militant attack on the Sinjar region, UNICEF said Tuesday. "According to official reports received by UNICEF, these children from the Yazidi minority died as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration over the past two days," a statement from the agency said. On Sunday, fighters from the Islamic State (IS) that controls much of northwestern Iraq captured Sinjar which had been under the control of Kurdish troops. Thousands of Iraqis - including Turkmens, Arabs and Yazidis - to fled the town, waiting in long queues to enter the Kurdish autonomous region’s capital, Erbil. Yazidis being targeted by ISIS Though ethnically Kurdish, Yazidis are not Muslim like the majority of their Kurdish brethren, Edwards explains. Instead, Yazidis follow an ancient religion rooted in Zoroastrianism that ISIS equates with "devil worship," making the Yazidis a prime target along with Christians, Shia Muslims and any other belief system outside the militants' ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam. ISIS's ultimatum is simple: convert or die. Terrified by the brutal violence directed at Christians when ISIS captured Mosul in June, Sinjar's Yazidis quickly emptied the city early Sunday morning as Kurdish security forces, reportedly low on ammunition, retreated. Many residents left everything behind. Thousands of Yazidis without transportation escaped into nearby mountains, including as many as 25,000 children. Now reports have emerged that the Yazidi men are being slaughtered and women raped. It has also been reported that ISIS’ atrocities on non-Sunnis have escalated. Image Courtesy: AFP An Iraqi Yazidi woman who fled Sinjar, cries as she stands among others at a school where they are taking shelter