"A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar," the top UN envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a statement after ISIS militants had captured the northern town, which lies near the Syrian border. Thousands of previously displaced families had fled to Sinjar to seek safety.
"The United Nations has grave concerns for the physical safety of these civilians," the statement said.
It said it was particularly concerned by the fate of civilians who fled into the Jabal Sinjar mountains and could be trapped inside an area completely surrounded by the militants.
"The humanitarian situation of these civilians is reported as dire, and they are in urgent need of basic items including food, water and medicine," the statement said.
Sinjar had been controlled by Kurdish troops but they withdrew on Sunday, the second consecutive day of losses for the peshmerga fighters, who also lost the town of Zumar and two nearby oilfields to ISIS jihadists on Saturday.
- Sinjar is the historical home of the Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority that adheres to a pre-Islamic faith derived, in part, from Zoroastrianism. They have been targeted by the Sunni militants of ISIS, who believe they are devil worshippers.
Mladenov urged the authorities of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq and the federal government in Baghdad to cooperate fully in addressing the crisis.
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ISIS has seized a large area straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and in June declared the establishment of an Islamic state or "caliphate", with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as its caliph. Baghdadi has demanded "obedience" from Muslims and ordered them to relocate to the areas under his control.
The latest militant advance comes as the Lebanese army was fighting Islamist fighters from ISIS and the al Qaeda-linked al Nusra Front (Jabhat al Nusra) near the Syrian border. At least three civilians and eight members of the security forces were killed after al Nusra fighters seized a security building late Saturday in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
http://www.france24.com/en/20140803-un-warns-humanitarian-tragedy-isis-seizes-iraq-sinjar/
3/8/14
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ISIS takes over Iraq’s biggest dam...
ReplyDeleteFighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took over Iraq's biggest dam unopposed by Kurdish fighters, who also lost three towns and an oilfield on Sunday to the Sunni militant group, witnesses said, according to Reuters news agency.
Control of the dam could give ISIS, which has threatened to march on Baghdad, the ability to flood major cities.
Meanwhile, ISIS also seized two small towns in northern Iraq after driving out Kurdish security forces, officials and residents said, according to the Associated Press.
The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced dozens of residents to flee from the religiously mixed towns of Zumar and Sinjar, near the militant-held city of Mosul, to the northern self-ruled Kurdish region.
Oil field
Earlier on Sunday, ISIS militants have successfully captured an oil field close to the Iraqi town of Zumar after fighting with Kurdish forces who had control of the area.
ISIS, which had a lightning advance through northern Iraq in June, warned residents in nearby villages along the border with Syria to leave their homes, suggesting they were planning an assault, witnesses said.
ISIS fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks in northern Iraq, while 30 pro-government forces died battling the jihadists on other frontlines, officials said Saturday.
Zumar is a small Kurdish-majority outpost northwest of Mosul, which used to be under federal government control but was taken over by the Peshmerga in June.
ISIS fighters, who had already been running large swathes of neighboring Syria, launched a blistering offensive on June 9 that saw them capture Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and move into much of the country’s Sunni heartland.
Many government forces retreated in the face of the onslaught, and Peshmerga troops seized the opportunity to fill the vacuum and seize long-coveted areas the Kurds were in dispute with Baghdad over.
Last Update: Sunday, 3 August 2014 KSA 15:47 - GMT 12:47
http://www.ellanodikhs.net/2014/08/un-warns-of-humanitarian-tragedy-as.html
Islamic State takes two towns, oil field over Kurds in Northern Iraq....
ReplyDeleteIslamic State Sunni insurgents have captured two northern Iraqi towns and an oil field in their first major victory over Kurdish fighters, witnesses said.
Islamic State fighters seized control of Wana, a town near Mosul Dam, after having seized two other towns and an oil field in their first major defeat of Kurdish forces since sweeping through northern Iraq in June
The al-Qaeda offshoot, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by Iraq's US-trained army, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
After thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled the Islamic State offensive, Shi'ite militias and Kurdish fighters have emerged as a key line of defence against the militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.
Kurdish forces poured in reinforcements, including special forces, to the town of Zumar this weekend to battle Islamic State fighters who had arrived from three directions on pickup trucks mounted with weapons, residents said.
The militants later hoisted their black flag over buildings in Zumar, a ritual that has in the past been followed by the mass execution of captured opponents and the violent imposition of an ideology that even al-Qaeda finds excessive.
The Islamic State later also seized the town of Sinjar, where witnesses said residents had fled after Kurdish fighters put up little resistance against the militants.
Islamic State has stalled in its drive to reach Baghdad, halting just north of the town of Samarra, 100 km north of the capital.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) changed its name earlier this year and declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group has already seized four oil fields, which help fund its operations........http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/166181/islamic-state-takes-two-towns-oil-field-over-kurds-in-northern-iraq
3/8/14