Photos: The terrible isolation of the Yazidis
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Version 0 of 1. After months of Islamic militants carving out their own region in Iraq, the plight of the Yazidi sect in northern Iraq pushed the Obama administration to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State. The Yazidis were forced to flee their region after militants took to abducting and killing members of the religious minority. About 10,000 to 40,000 are stranded on Mount Sinjar relying on a small supply of food and water. People who fled from the violence in Mosul gathered inside the Khazer refugee camp on the outskirts of the Kurdish city of Irbil. Displaced families arrive at Dohuk province.
Obama called the treatment of the Yazidis a massacre, and said, “We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide.”
The Washington Post's Loveday Morris talked to some people who were stranded on the mountain. One person described it as this: “I'm standing here next to an old lady and a child lying on the ground. They are not dead, but we fear they are dying.” At least 17 children have died so far. An Iraqi Yazidi family taking shelter in a school in Dohuk. In 2006, Sinjar was seen as a beacon of hope for the Yazidis. Pictured is a temple, a holy site for the Yazidis in Sinjar. RELATED: U.S. airdrops to aid Iraqis fleeing Islamic State forces View Photo Gallery — Iraqi civilians fled as mass panic set in with the retreat of Kurdish forces from Islamic State militants. Meanwhile, President Obama approved humanitarian airdrops to besieged Iraqis escaping the Sunni extremists. |