40,000 Iraqis stranded on Sinjar mountain after Islamic State death threats
Tens of thousands of members of Iraqi religious minority groups are dying of heat and thirst on Mount Sinjar, human rights groups say, after death threats from Islamic State - formerly Isis
4:44PM BST 06 Aug 2014
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.
Smoke rises during clashes between Kurdish "peshmerga" troops and militants of the Islamic State on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul (Reuters)
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.
This makes them especially vulnerable to the sectarian attacks practised by Islamic State, which refers to them as “devil-worshippers”.
The group’s social media feeds, often used to trumpet its atrocities to instil fear in its enemies, have already begun to show executions said to be of Yazidi men.
“We are being slaughtered. Our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth. I am begging you, in the name of humanity,” a Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, was quoted as saying in parliament, as she broke down in tears.
There were also said to be Christians and Muslims among the refugees in the mountains, and the shortage of food was forcing them to hunt for wild game.
The Peshmerga announced their troops were in the area, supported for the first time by Kurdish fighters from guerrilla groups in neighbouring Syria and Turkey. But they have so far been unable to reach the refugees.
One man told an Amnesty International researcher, Donatella Rovera, that his relatives were among 30 members of two families seized by Islamic State from the village of Khana Sor, north-west of Sinjar.
“They killed the 15 men and took the women and children and until now we do not know what happened to them, where they are or if they are alive or dead,” he said.
Islamic State, which also controls nearly a third of neighbouring Syria, swept across most Sunni parts of Iraq in a dramatic strike at the beginning of June, seizing the second biggest city, Mosul, and the birth-place of Saddam Hussein, Tikrit.
It has already filmed itself carrying out mass executions of Shia soldiers it captured as the army withdrew precipitously. Sunni soldiers were made to pledge allegiance before being sent home.
Its fighters are still attacking the edges of Shia majority areas of the centre and south of Iraq, including within a few miles of Baghdad, but has held off a full frontal attack. It seemed also to have been held up by Kurdish forces in the north and east, who guard the Kurdistan autonomous region.
However, they too were forced to retreat by a sudden advance across an 80-mile front at the weekend, abandoning both Sinjar and another northern city, Zumar, where Islamic State claimed to have killed the regional Kurdish intelligence chief.
The Kurds, who are only lightly armed, are appealing for help from the United States, but Washington has up to now insisted all military aid in Iraq goes through the central authorities. It has sent military advisers to Baghdad, along with surveillance drones and Predators armed with Hellfire missiles.
Meanwhile, the jihadists’ advance has sent Christians, Shia, and other minority groups flooding into Kurdistan for protection. The number of Christians in Iraq had already declined by between a half and three-quarters since the allied invasion of 2003, and now priests are warning the religion is on the verge of extinction in the country.
Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect walk on the outskirts of Sinjar (Reuters)
On Wednesday, Islamic State shelled Christian towns near the frontline, sending more refugees on the road to the comparative safety of the Kurdish capital, Erbil.
The Kurdish forces, the Peshmerga, said they were starting to fight back, with the support of the central government, with whom they usually have a poor relationship. State television in Baghdad claimed an Iraqi army air strike on Mosul prison, which Islamic State was using as a base, killed 60 jihadists, though this could not be verified.
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,” Ms Rovera said.
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