Iraq Crisis : Updates on ISIS Genocide of minority Yezidis

[ExtraOdinary]

Yazidi Volunteers Prepare to Fight Back Against ISIS Militants - NBC News

Yazidi Volunteers Prepare to Fight Back Against ISIS Militants

Kurdish militants in Syria have trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers to fight ISIS forces in Iraq, a member of the armed Kurdish YPG said on Sunday. Reuters photographer Youssef Boudlal spent Saturday at a training camp in northeastern Syria on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, where he saw 55 Yazidis being trained to fight the Islamic State.

Dressed in green military fatigues and sweating in temperatures of over 100 degrees, young and old men were taught how to use assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. After several days' training they will be sent back to Mount Sinjar to fight, Anas Hani of the Kurdish YPG said. "In the past ten days, hundreds have graduated. And we are training more."

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Yazidi Volunteers Prepare to Fight Back Against ISIS Militants - NBC News

Yazidi Volunteers Prepare to Fight Back Against ISIS Militants

Kurdish militants in Syria have trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers to fight ISIS forces in Iraq, a member of the armed Kurdish YPG said on Sunday. Reuters photographer Youssef Boudlal spent Saturday at a training camp in northeastern Syria on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, where he saw 55 Yazidis being trained to fight the Islamic State.

Dressed in green military fatigues and sweating in temperatures of over 100 degrees, young and old men were taught how to use assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. After several days' training they will be sent back to Mount Sinjar to fight, Anas Hani of the Kurdish YPG said. "In the past ten days, hundreds have graduated. And we are training more."

Right now, the PKK/PYD/YPG who is marxist/Turkish/Syrian in nature are recruiting all different sect under their umbrella, unifying them with Marxism.

The PKK/PYD/YPG has prove to be a better fighter than the corrupt Iraqi Kurd.

The PKK/PYD/YPG is now sheltering and saving all minorities giving them food and meanwhile, recruiting their men, and even women into their ranks.

Kurds mobilise to fight Islamic State | Green Left Weekly

In early August, IS forces seized the town of Shengal in western Iraq. Normally inhabited by about 30,000 people, this is the historic centre of the Kurdish-speaking Yezidi community, which practices an ancient religion which predates Christianity and Islam.

IS regards Yezidis as “devil-worshippers” who should be killed. The IS wanted to control the area so that it would be able to more easily supply their forces in Syria.

The town was defended by peshmerga of Barzani’s KDP. The IS forces attacked and at a certain point the peshmerga withdrew.

The reasons for this are not yet clear, but it left the people completely exposed. A mass exodus then took place as tens of thousands of terrified people streamed out of the town to seek refuge on stony barren Mount Shengal to the north.

Hundreds have since died of thirst, starvation and exposure. The IS has massacred hundreds of Yezidis and kidnapped large numbers of women.

Ekurd.net said on August 5 that PYD leader Saleh Muslim sharply criticised the withdrawal of the KDP peshmerga from Shengal.

Muslim said: “The peshmerga left the people there alone and fled. On such a day such a response was expected of the YPG and they did [what was expected of them] … the people said what they saw.

“The peshmerga left them alone. There were no clashes between the peshmerga and the ISIS in the region. They withdrew without a fight. Of course there must have been a mistake or it is possible the wrong order was given. If not I do not think the peshmerga would have fled from the fighting.

The YPG had long warned the KDP that the town was not adequately defended. In a dramatic intervention, a large YPG-YPJ force entered Iraq on August 3 through the border crossing at Til Kocher.

It first had to clear the border area of the IS gangs. At the same time, it pushed toward Mount Shengal and helped escort large numbers of refugees to safety in Rojava and Kurdistan.

The peshmerga have since regrouped and a large force has been sent to retake the town. The PKK has also sent militia units to Shengal from its camps in Kurdistan. Some 700 Yezidi refugees have joined the YPG and are taking part in the effort to recapture Shengal.

At first ignoring the YPG-YPJ and HPG-YJA STAR, the peshmerga have since been forced to conduct joint operations against the IS killers. The prestige and authority of Barzani and the KDP would seem to have been badly tarnished. (Barzani announced that the military commanders who withdrew would be subject to an investigation.) As of August 10, Shengal has yet to be completely retaken.

Turkey’s deceptive game

Turkey has been giving significant support to the IS. Large numbers of foreign Islamists seeking to join the IS have freely transited Turkey. Wounded IS fighters have crossed into Turkey for medical treatment.

But Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also wants Kurdish support for his August presidential bid. Kurds make up about 20% of the population. Erdogan has made several concessions to the long-oppressed Kurdish community, mainly on the use of their language.

Turkey also has close relations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). About 1300 Turkish firms are active in the area; each year Turkey exports billions of dollars of goods to Kurdistan and takes most of its oil.

PKK leaders have called on Turkey to declare publicly where it stands as regards the IS.

The recent setbacks for the peshmerga have turned the spotlight on the KRG. The PYD and PKK are socialist-oriented groups. The KRG is run by two conservative nationalist parties, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani.

A great deal of investment money has poured into Kurdistan recently, much of it going into building fancy shopping malls. Corruption is widespread and the gap between rich and poor is growing.

The peshmerga is not a true national army. It is largely divided between the KDP and PUK. The KDP is hostile to the PYD. It has tried to establish an armed presence in Rojava but has been blocked by the PYD.

Adding to tensions, in April, the KRG dug a 26-kilometre-long trench along its border with northern Syria. The PYD and the PKK denounced it as project to isolate the Kurdish areas of Syria.

The KRG says it is aimed at stopping terrorists. There was certainly no prior consultation. Kurds on both sides of the trench protested.

The KRG is also short of funds since the central Iraq government has stopped paying its regional subsidy. The peshmerga’s weapons are old and no match for the new US heavy equipment the IS has acquired.

The PYD has been calling for unity of the Kurdish struggle for a long time. In the face of recent setbacks, the KRG has been forced to recognise that the Kurds face a national crisis of the very first order.

It seems that some sort of common front of the YPG-YPJ, PKK-aliged forces, peshmerga and exiled Iranian Kurds is being established.

 

[-SINAN-]

It will end up in PKK hands. That is why IS should destroy PKK.

Yeah, if one of those missiles hit a Turkish vehicle... we should bomb Arbil.

 

[atatwolf]

Yeah, if one of those missiles hit a Turkish vehicle... we should bomb Arbil.

On the news I saw that PKK conquered some anti-air and some other heavy equipment. I'm wondering what Davutoglu's plan is but it seems he doesn't have a plan. Do you think US consulted us before helping the Kurds?

 

[type93]

Do you think US consulted us before helping the Kurds?

I don't think the us consults with terrorist countries.....

 

[Lux de Veritas]

On the news I saw that PKK conquered some anti-air and some other heavy equipment. I'm wondering what Davutoglu's plan is but it seems he doesn't have a plan. Do you think US consulted us before helping the Kurds?

Not to worry, the USA will not help PKK/YPG, even without the Turkish factor. PKK is socialist and that is deadly enemy of status quo and it is the only ideology that is able to dislodge free market capitalism that USA espouse.

The USA would rather work to support Islamofascist than communist. That USA earlier wish to bomb Assad so that the "free syrian army" which essentially ISIS is part of them will take advantage. Over the years, USA has support Islamofascist everywhere in the world to go against socialist pole of power.

Most socialist Arabic powers have shown hostile to USA, to the sheikh, and being true patriots, such as Baath party, Gamel Nasser.

 

[manlion]

 

[manlion]

The Soldiers of Sinjar

Sinjar- men are from various villages in Sinjar—the district in northwestern Iraq from which thousands of (mostly) Yazidi families fled when Islamic State (IS) militants advanced west from Mosul, the center of their continued assault on Iraq since the June 5 invasion. On Aug. 17, photojournalist Andrew Quilty spent the day with Sinjari's unit in a run-down facility close to Peshkhabour on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq, in the northern Kurdish region. They are training, Sinjari says, to take back their homeland.

The men at the training camp wear matching uniforms and carry various incarnations of Kalashnikov rifles. Sinjari himself, however, is never without his U.S. military standard-issue M4 carbine, which he says was first given to then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's army by the United States before being captured by the Islamic State in the group's mid-June advance, until he himself wrested it away from an IS fighter, he says with a wry smile.

But these men come together not under a Yazidi flag but under one of geographical unity—for the protection of Sinjar. While the ragtag unit in training is made up of Yazidis, Muslims, and Christians, they consider themselves all to be Kurdish. Sinjari, 35, (who would not allow Quilty to photograph him) says they're not motivated by religious ideology, nor do they want to fight for territory outside the Sinjar region. "We tolerate all people. All people, all nations are the same [to us]," he says.

The men in Sinjari's unit are mostly in their early 20s or younger. Before the IS advance on Aug. 4, most were with the Iraqi army. Some were Peshmerga (Kurdish Iraqi military), and some were common workers. There are few among them who didn't have relatives killed or abducted by IS in the days that followed.

At the training camp they receive basic weapons provided by the YPG (the Kurdish acronym for the People's Protection Units), which maintains control of much of the northern Kurdish region of Syria and has recently become active in preventing the Syrian civil war from spreading to the region. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)—which is categorized by the United States as a terrorist organization—and the Kurdistan Regional Government are also contributing to the modest warchest, says Sinjari.

While he bemoans the lack of support they're receiving from the likes of the United States and NATO, Sinjari claims defiantly that it is not technical training and sophisticated weapons that his men need. "We have the soul and spirit of Apo," he says, referring to the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan.

"Our souls are better protecting these people than weapons and tanks."

 

[manlion]

Sisters in YPJ ranks: We turned the tragedy into struggle | ANF

A large number of people from the village of Girsor took refugee in Sinjar Mountain when ISIS gangs attacked and occupied the Kurdish Yezidi town Sinjar on 3 August.

Laleşin and Evin who also come from the Girsor village and found refugee in Rojava joined the ranks of West Kurdistan's YPJ (Women's Protection Units) after crossing into Rojava thanks to the corridor opened by HPG guerrillas and YPG fighters after seven days without water and food in the mountains.

Two young sisters, Laleşin and Evin, say they are not afraid any more, after joining the YPJ forces, and call on Yezidi women not to allow the tragedy they are facing to become their destiny.

20 year old Laleşin told the followings about the difficulties they faced on Sinjar Mountain;

We fled to the Sinjar Mountain when ISIS attacked. During the one week we remained there, we were filling the tops of water bottles we brought with water and drinking them one by one to be able to survive the scorching heat. In this way we could at least wet our throat. We would have died otherwise. Small children and elder couldn't endure it though. People stranded on the mountains survived that week thanks to fruit trees, eating the leaves of fig trees and others. This prevented the death of more people. We distributed everyone a slice from the bread we were able to take with us while fleeing. We couldn't drink the air-dropped water either, as the bottles were all bursting when dropped from the helicopter. We could hardly survive the seven days there."

Then speaks her sister Evin (19) who is one year younger than her; "My mother's blood pressure went up in the scorching heat. We weren't expecting her to survive when HPG fighters came to rescue us. They took her from there and rushed her to hospital."

Laleşin and Evin, along with four other young women from Sinjar, joined YPJ forces in Rojava where they managed to reach following a challenging journey.

We feel stronger now, says Laleşin who says their participation in YPJ also sets an example to all other Yezidi women. She adds the followings; "My mother herself handed us over to our comrades when we joined the YPJ. This is a first in the Yezidi community among whom the participation of women in such organizations is not looked favourably on. However, my family also understood that this was the way to defend our honour and lands and handed us over to YPJ fighters in order that we also fight like other woman guerrillas. We are very happy here and feel much stronger."

"We are here today because we didn't forget the days we have lived", says Evin as to the reason why they joined the ranks of resistance. She continues by telling about a striking event they witnessed while on Sinjar Mountain;

"We, the women, were sleeping alternately in the evenings while men kept guard in front of the mountain. We had already made a decision to take each other by the hand and to jump off the cliff if ISIS happened to attack us. Some did this. Around 40 women held each other's hand and jumped off the cliff in order not to be captured by ISIS. Living means nothing to us if we don't have a honorable life."

Evin remarked that they choose the most honorable way by joining the YPJ, and called on all Yezidi women to take part in the struggle.

"We as two sisters joined the YPJ to take the revenge of our murdered brother, thousands of massacred Yezidis and the kidnapped Yezidi women. We are being trained now and I am counting the days to go to Sinjar and to fight against ISIS."

Evin called on all Yezidi women and men to join forces against ISIS gangs, and vowed to enhance the resistance against massacres targeting their people

 

[manlion]

ISIS has been targeting Yezidi sacred sites, nearly 120 sites are at risk of destruction according to heritage sites head

 

[manlion]

Yazidis still stranded on Mount Sinjar: 'We need weapons now more than food or water' | World | The Guardian

 

[Hiptullha]

Yazidis still stranded on Mount Sinjar: 'We need weapons now more than food or water' | World | The Guardian

Damn, this sounds terrible. Besides the one from the US, what other relief efforts are out there?

 

[manlion]

Damn, this sounds terrible. Besides the one from the US, what other relief efforts are out there?

no aid to Yezidis stranded in Mt Sinjar from any international NGOs or country expect by PKK fighters

 

[1000]

no aid to Yezidis stranded in Mt Sinjar from any international NGOs or country expect by PKK fighters

Then all those video's of US airdrops and Iraqi helicopters aiding them are fake!

 

[manlion]

Then all those video's of US airdrops and Iraqi helicopters aiding them are fake!

most of the air drops don't reach their destinations , e.g disintegration in mid air, when dropped from high attitude w/ parachutes , the Telegraph has also reported that water containers burst on ground impact, .

And according to Pentagon the humanitarian crisis in Mt Sinjar is 'over' and does not warrant warrant further relief

Obama Says Mission To Help Refugees On Mount Sinjar Is Over

And President Obama announced this week that further humanitarian air drops or an air rescue were unlikely, even though a United Nations official stated that “the crisis on Mount Sinjar is by no means over” and many Yazidis remain on the mountain.