The Telegraph reports on a horror.
Tens of thousands of members of Iraqi religious minority groups driven from their homes for fear of the jihadist group Islamic State are dying of thirst and heat on a desert mountainside in the north of the country, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.
Some 40 children have already died from the heat and dehydration, the UN children’s organisation Unicef says, while upwards of 40,000 more are sheltering in the bare mountains, without food or water or access to supplies. It says 25,000 children may be stranded.
Hundreds of adults, particularly men but also women and children, are already feared to have been killed or abducted by the group, which now surrounds their hiding place.
Most of the refugees, who fled their home city of Sinjar when it was seized by Islamic State at the weekend, are members of the Yazidi community. The Yazidis are an offshoot from Zoroastrianism and the “Peacock Angel” at the centre of their beliefs is associated by some Sunni Muslims with Satan.
Oh dear god. That’s not a reason to murder people. Just stop.
The Yazidis mostly fled south when Sinjar was attacked, but the mountains where they are hiding out are entirely cut off by the Islamic State. Some photos have emerged of panicked lines of cars, and groups of people huddled at the entrance of caves.
The army has managed to drop some supplies by helicopter, but not enough.
“The civilians trapped in the mountain area are not only at risk of being killed or abducted; they are also suffering from a lack of water, food and medical care,” Ms Rovera said. “We urge the international community to provide humanitarian assistance.”
Amnesty claimed the Kurdish government had begun blocking access to refugees. “The plight of displaced people caught up in the fighting in Iraq is increasingly desperate and all parties to the conflict must do more to ensure their safety,” [Amnesty International researcher Donatella] Rovera said.
40.thousand.people.
Hey, what the heck. The US after all got rid of their creation Saddam and now with the help of Saudi Arabia and Qatar as financiers finishes the job destabilizing what is left of the country.
Who cares how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s died in the pursuit by the empire of chaos to force its will, economy and foreign policies on other countries. The goal is broad spectrum dominance by the US, and creating chaos is how it is done. It happened in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the next target: Russia http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-02-010814.html
@ kraut
You do realize this is a post about a tremendous tragedy unfolding in real-time, yes? Your fantasy life is irrelevant.
” Your fantasy life is irrelevant.”
I wonder what planet you live on. And why that slaughter has nothing to do with American imperial politics, caused by a group of people subsidized by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, close allies to whom? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html
I guess according to you America never invaded Iraq, invaded Afghanistan, helped to oust Qaddafi, supported so called Freedom Fighting jihadis in Syria, supports with weapons Israel committing atrocities, with all the following blowback in those countries.
According to you Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. etc. had nothing to do with US policies as laid out by Cheney and Rumsfeld et.al., http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm or the policies towards Russia as formulated by
Brzezinski: “in his 1998 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, and his ambitions to contain and ultimately break up the Russian state are summed up in his article A Geostrategy for Eurasia.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-paul/forget-the-spin-putin-is_b_5183691.html
Maybe you just to spare a few tears for those in dire straits, without knowing the background how they got there.
I can understand – powerless to help and powerless to prevent further atrocities by those who actually rule the roost and run the country. But my guess is – that is a conspiracy theory, and the economic elite, the less than 0.01% do really not direct economic, internal and foreign policies to their, and only their advantage – maybe a few scraps to the plebs to keep quiet.
It’s beyond horrendous. Here you can actually see a woman’s heart breaking as she describes the situation of her people to the Iraqi Government – https://www.change.org/petitions/united-nations-protect-yezidis-in-their-kurdish-homeland?recruiter=10802361&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_mobile
Women are being treated as prizes for fighters: http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/8/kurdsiniraq242.htm
Sorry about the bad link above: Here is Vian Dakhil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdIEm1s6yhY
Much of the Western world couldn’t care less about Fundamentalist Muslims killing non-Muslims in Iraq as they’re too busy preventing Israel from winning its battle against the Islamist terrorists of Hamas.
@Galloise Blonde.
ISIS uses Yazidi women as sex slaves.
They’re evil inhuman perverts.
@5 I agree. As the old saying about mid-east events goes; no Jews, no news.
As of this evening (EST) there were accounts that the US has started, or will soon start, air dropping supplies to the Yazidis. The account listed C-17s being used and escorted by fighters.
Another account claimed the plan was established but was waiting final approval.
@ 6 Reuven
FTFY
(I could have sworn we’d just said goodbye to Dear Muslima, so what the hell is she doing in your comment?)
But my guess is – that is a conspiracy theory, and the economic elite, the less than 0.01% do really not direct economic, internal and foreign policies to their, and only their advantage – maybe a few scraps to the plebs to keep quiet.
Nothing but standard, lazy, simpleminded conspiracy-theory rhetoric here — whatever happens, happens exactly as and because the all-powerful conspiracy wants it to happen. Care to explain how ISIL’s brutal, bloody, vindictive insurgency helps the 0.01% in any way that justifies their even noticing it?
Also, Kraut, I just had a look at that Daily Beast article, and it doesn’t even support your conspiracy theory. For starters, it talks about individual donors to ISIL; and you’re confusing that with a monolithic conspiracy of governments and corporations. There’s people getting killed out there — the very least you can do is stop being so lazy and stop trying to fit a complex reality into a tired, obsolete conspiracy-theory mentality.