Gawker - USA Either is or isn't or will be boming ISIS in Iraq

American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq http://t.co/ZCsY2wv6vb

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2014

Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken.

— Rear Adm. John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 7, 2014

More @CBSDavidMartin: Pentagon preparing for possible air strikes against ISIS around Erbil, Iraq where 150 US advisers may be in jeopardy.

— Charlie Kaye (@CharlieKayeCBS) August 7, 2014

Official: U.S. humanitarian airdrop missions start in Iraq


By Jim Sciutto, Elise Labott and Tom Cohen, CNN

updated 6:22 PM EDT, Thu August 7, 2014

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 6:16 p.m. ET Thursday]

"An effort has begun" on humanitarian airdrops over northern Iraq, a senior U.S. official told CNN on Thursday. Fighter jets are involved in the effort for the purpose of protection, the source said.

[Original story, posted at 5:47 p.m. ET Thursday]

U.S. considers air strikes in Iraq

(CNN) -- An emerging humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq, with minority groups facing possible slaughter by Sunni Muslim extremists, has President Barack Obama considering airstrikes and airdrops to help get them aid.

"The latest news just might meet the threshold for action," a U.S. official told CNN amid reports of thousands of families from the Yazidi minority trapped without food, water or medical care in the summer heat after fleeing the rampaging fighters of the Islamic State, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.

The Pentagon called "completely false" overseas media reports that the United States had already conducted airstrikes.

A potential escalation of U.S. military involvement comes two years after Obama ended the Iraq war and brought home American forces.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday that any potential U.S. action in Iraq would be limited, with no chance of ground troops heading back.

He said the principle for taking a military step would be threats to core American interests or U.S. personnel in Iraq.

Refusing to offer details on what options were being considered, Earnest described the current situation in Iraq as "disturbing," with "innocent populations persecuted just because of their ethnic identity."

Later Thursday, a Pentagon official told CNN's Barbara Starr of concerns that ISIS could make a move against the several dozen U.S. military advisers in Irbil, the largest city in Iraq's Kurdish region.

People fleeing

The ISIS fighters, armed with armored vehicles and other military hardware taken from Iraqi forces in a lightning sweep through the north earlier this year, have overrun Iraq's largest Christian town and nearby villages.

When radical Islamist fighters stormed the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar over the weekend, the Yazidi minority who call it home fled into the surrounding mountains in fear of their lives.

Now, trapped without food, water or medical care in the summer heat, thousands are in desperate need of help. It's already too late to save dozens of children who've died of thirst.

Other groups targeted by ISIS, which seeks to establish a Sunni caliphate stretching from Syria to Baghdad, include Shiite Muslim, Turkmen and Shabak -- all religious minorities.

Fleeing people, some in cars and trucks and others on foot, got out with whatever possessions. The United Nations estimates 200,000 people heading toward Kurdistan in the past 48 hours.

Kurdish region

Outside Irbil, the internal refugees were sleeping in parking lots or shells of buildings under construction with little access to water or any other services, CNN's Ivan Watson reported.

Kurdish officials call for U.S. or NATO airstrikes to help them fight the ISIS forces.

They also issued statements intended to boost morale of the Kurdish people, saying the Kurdish Pershmerga fighters would be able to hold off any serious threat to Erbil and other cities.

The Obama administration is talking with officials in Baghdad and Erbil and is looking at options to provide humanitarian support, including but not limited to Iraqi government airdrops, according to a second U.S. official.

A senior State Department official said the United States also was weighing opening a humanitarian corridor to provide support to Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

Earnest, however, said while the United States would support Iraqi and Kurdish efforts, "we can't solve these problems for them. These problems can only be solved with Iraqi political solutions."

The United States has 245 military personnel in Iraq, 90 of whom are advisers. The carrier USS George H.W. Bush and other Navy ships also are in the region.

Sinjar unrest

Yazidis, among Iraq's smallest minorities, are of Kurdish descent, and their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

Most of the 500,000 or so members live in and around Sinjar in northwestern Nineveh province, bordering Iraq's Kurdish region.

The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said Tuesday that official reports indicated 40 children from the Yazidi minority had died "as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration" since the weekend.

"Families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children who are now stranded in mountains surrounding Sinjar and are in dire need of humanitarian aid including drinking water and sanitation services," it said.

Lord have mercy. Mercy. RT@yosuheirhammad: https://t.co/WThzIwYCvW
this #bossa.
#Yazidis

— djinn and juice (@waleedzaiter) August 8, 2014

Iraq Watch: U.S. airstrikes hit Islamic State artillery; top Iraqi cleric blames bickering politicians for crisis


By Lindsay Wise and Mitchell Prothero
McClatchy Washington Bureau


Published: Friday, Aug. 8, 2014 - 7:55 am

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military has carried out airstrikes on artillery used by Islamic State militants near the Kurdish capital of Irbil, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Friday morning that two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Irbil. The artillery had been used against Kurdish forces defending Irbil, near U.S. personnel, he said.

Kirby said the targeted strikes took place at 6:45 a.m. Eastern time.

“The decision to strike was made by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief,” he said. “As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL when they threaten our personnel and facilities.”

The U.S. military also has conducted aid drops to Iraqis in need, Kirby said.

Today’s other news from Iraq:

- Iraq’s top cleric blamed politicians for the country’s escalating crisis and called on them stop arguing and choose a prime minister so that a united government can confront the danger posed by militants from the Islamic State.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said in a Friday sermon in the holy city of Kerbala that selfish politicians who cling to their positions are making a “grave mistake,” according to the Alakhbar news website.

“All Iraqis should unify ranks and intensify efforts in the face of this big danger that threatens their present and future,” Sistani said.

“All political parties should know that conflicts and differences among each other_which in many times have no justification but self interest or sectarian or national interests_have caused the weakening of everybody and opened the door for the terrorists,” he said.

- International oil companies, who maintain a huge presence in Irbil, have put their employees on the highest alert as the prepare evacuation plans from the capital.

Exxon and Chevron both had restricted their employees’ movements over the past few days, with most confined to their homes under heavy security.

Now the companies are bringing planes into Irbil’s international airport to evacuate employees should conditions deteriorate. Industry sources said U.S. airstrikes in or around Irbil would be a likely trigger.

- On Friday morning the British Embassy had warned its citizens to leave Irbil and Dohuk, cities close to the major fighting, while the US Embassy had yet to make an official announcement.

- Kurdish security officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Thursday night saw the execution of a security plan in which Arab Sunnis_of which there are tens of thousands as refugees in the Kurdisn areas_that have been under observation were being arrested in a series of raids throughput the area. Plainclothes Kurdish security forces could be seen in unmarked cars throughout may areas of the capital, as, according to the officials, steps were taken to prevent ‘sleeper cell’ attacks inside the city.

“We have real concerns about Daash posing as refugees,” said one security official, using the derogatory Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “We have been watching closely for them and caught many trying to enter our territory.”

On Thursday at the main checkpoint between IS held Mosul and Irbil, at least three refugees were seen being bundled into the trunks of cars by peshemrga forces, apparently, in one case, because of his Mosul accents and a Koran in his car.

Mitchell Prothero contributed to this article from Irbil, Iraq.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/08/6614863/iraq-watch-us-airstrikes-hit-islamic.html#storylink=cpy

theminis wrote:I understand President Obamas comments that the US cannot intervene in every country where there is genocide/atrocities etc but Im very glad to hear that the US has at this point in time made an effort to help these people, I only hope that more countries can or will step up each and every time.

LizzyNY wrote:PAN - I don't think Obama does sleep at night! We in the US are so war weary. We're tired of sending our boys off to die all over the world. Someone needs help or something goes wrong and everyone turns to us first and asks what we're going to do about it. Then they jump all over us for doing something. I can't wait to see what they say about our response to ISIS. Apparently everyone was waiting for us to do something - now they can tell us why we shouldn't have interfered.

I know other countries are helping where they can and they, too, are suffering tragic losses, but there's got to be a better solution. When Obama calls down a military response he's not just mobilising machines - he's decimating a generation of young people whose lives should be better spent than trying to rid the world of barbarians.

Sevens - Every country acts out of self interest - including China. The US is no different. If we have troops in a country during peaceful times it is often because we have been asked to be there to help keep the peace.Your country chose to spend most of its history isolated from the rest of the world because it was in your self-interest. That worked for you, but the rest of the world had to learn to co-exist and find common interests and ways of dealing with one another.

You say civil wars will work themselves out and no one should interfere. Even where genocide is involved? Would you walk away from Darfur, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Cambodia, World Wars I and II?Would you allow ISIS to slaughter anyone who doesn't agree with them? What would you do if they came knocking at your door?

Sevens wrote:

It seemed stupid to me to just kill everyone who doesn't agree with you... why not be a wise leader doing things that most people agree with you?

LizzyNY wrote:! We in the US are so war weary. We're tired of sending our boys off to die all over the world. Someone needs help or something goes wrong and everyone turns to us first and asks what we're going to do about it.

LornaDoone wrote:And yes, I do believe a lot of other country leaders in the Middle East want to see Islamic law and religion prevail in the region.  I believe that because they AREN'T doing anything to stop ISIS.

But I'll bet once the reality of what they will have to live with eventually makes itself clear, they won't be so happy.  These young boys and teens who are  joining ISIS are being brainwashed to believe that their lives will be better than they are now if ISIS is successful in their efforts.  They couldn't be more wrong.

CNN) -- The Sinjar Mountains rise suddenly from the endless desert of northern Iraq, a ridge of craggy rock some 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, running east to west. Barren and windswept, some 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) high, they make a forbidding sight. But for centuries, they have been the refuge of the desperate and a place of mystical importance.

Last week, the mountains saw another influx, as tens of thousands of people tried to escape the rapid advance of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which now calls itself the Islamic State. Many of them were Yazidis, fleeing the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages in convoys of dozens of vehicles. The lucky ones used smuggling routes to cross into Syria and back into Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq. The less fortunate were either seized by ISIS militants or headed into the mountains.

The Yazidi are an ancient religious sect -- mainly ethnic Kurds -- that worship an angel figure held by many Muslims to be the devil. ISIS has executed Yazidis who refuse to convert to its extreme ideology.

By Sunday, according to Iraqi and Kurdish sources, as many as 20,000 had been able to leave the mountains -- perhaps half of those who had been stranded for nearly a week. U.N. agencies estimated late last week there were as many as 50,000 people in the mountains.

Kurdish peshmerga forces appear to have secured an escape route, but a hazardous one with ISIS militants still roaming the area. According to some accounts, Syrian Kurds also helped people use parts of northeastern Syria under their control to reach Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

U.S. airstrikes Saturday against several armored personnel carriers used by ISIS in the area may have helped the escape. But President Obama acknowledged Saturday that securing safe passage for those still stranded would be "logistically complicated."

Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International, who is in the region, spoke Sunday of families that had escaped, arriving in the town of Fishkhabour after a circuitous trek through Syria "in terrible condition, fainting from exhaustion." Some had told her that ISIS had abducted women and girls.

Unless food and water reach those remaining, mainly on the southern slopes, they have an impossible choice between dying of dehydration and giving themselves up to ISIS. Daytime temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).

Video of Kurdish relief mission showed a helicopter landing with supplies on a barren scarp. Hundreds of desperate people ran toward it. Twenty lucky ones were able to scramble aboard for the return flight, many of them hysterical. A few dozen more have been picked up by Iraqi helicopters, which have also been bringing aid to the mountains.

Photographs from last week showed thousands of people abandoning their vehicles before trekking to higher altitudes, carrying what they could. On the northern side of the range, Christians were also fleeing, as ISIS fighters pushed toward the mountains from two directions. A few took refuge in caves, according to those who have escaped. Many more wandered the boulder-strewn slopes.

The U.S. Air Force has carried out three relief drops on successive nights since Thursday, which have included some 50,000 ready-to-eat meals. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon had "pretty solid information" that of the 72 bundles dropped by C-17 and C-130 aircraft in the first mission, more than 60 had reached "the people who were trapped up there."

Two more U.S. airdrops followed, the latest on Saturday night, as well as one by the Royal Air Force. The U.N. Children's Fund -- UNICEF -- estimates that at least 20 flights would be needed to keep the thousands trapped alive for a week. France is also planning aid drops.

Crossroads of conflict


The Yazidis settled in the area around Sinjar in the 12th century. The mountains on which they now suffer had a special place in their beliefs. Yazidi tradition held that Noah's Ark had come to rest on the summit.

As a minority, they are no strangers to conflict and persecution. Through the ages, cultures, religions and ethnicities have competed and clashed in this part of Iraq. In the early 19th century, the Kurds, Arabs and Yazidis all had different names for Sinjar. Kurdish fighters invaded Yazidi lands, killing hundreds.

Frederick Forbes, a British colonial officer who visited the area in 1838, said the Yazidis had "kept the whole of the country between Mosul and Nisibin in a state of alarm" until being "pacified" by the Ottoman Empire.

When he reached the town of Sinjar, Forbes found a fertile place fed by mountain streams, but the "ruins of many Mohammedan buildings" recalled earlier battles.

Another colonial visitor, Gertrude Bell, wrote in the 1920s that "until a couple of years ago the Yezidis were ceaselessly at war with the Arabs and with everybody else."

Everybody else included the Turkish army, which had tried to force the Yazidis to convert to Islam in the last few years of the 19th century, a story told by the traveler Oswald Hutton Parry in his "Six Months in a Syrian Monastery," written in 1895.

After the Yazidis had been told to convert, Parry wrote, "none responded. Christianity they were less unready to accept; the Christians were their friends and fellow-sufferers. Islam had always cursed and persecuted them." So the Sultan sent troops commanded by his son to Yazidi villages. "The soldiers slew in all some five hundred men. ... The pretty women and girls he took captive, marrying them by force to his soldiers."

The Yazidis did indeed see Christians as fellow sufferers. A hundred years ago, they helped Armenian Christians fleeing Turkey to settle in the shadow of the Sinjar Mountains, along with Chaldean and Syriac Catholics. But in the spring of 1918, Turkish forces arrived and destroyed the settlement as well as many Yazidi homes.

For a while after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Yazidis were unsure whether they would end up as part of Iraq or Syria. Eventually, in 1933, an international commission placed Sinjar inside Iraq -- a decision by colonial overlords that would later haunt the Yazidis. During Saddam Hussein's rule, many of their settlements were razed and their inhabitants forced into "collective villages" as a buffer against the troublesome Kurds.

As Matthew Barber writes in the blog Syria Comment,  "Saddam bulldozed countless Yazidi towns until there was nothing left but gravel, and then forcibly moved their former inhabitants into collectives situated in locations that served his strategic interests." At least one of those collectives saw its population swell with refugees from Sinjar in recent days.

Even after Hussein was overthrown, there was little peace for the Yazidis. Relations with Sunni Arabs remained tense, and after a 17-year old Yazidi girl in the town of Bashika was suspected of having a relationship with a Sunni teenager, extremists murdered more than 20 Yazidis.

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO:

Spoiler:

At the time, the region was a stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq and a conduit for militants arriving from Syria to fight U.S. forces. Suicide bombings in August 2007 targeted Yazidi communities in and around the town of Qahataniya, killing nearly 200 people.

One U.S. military raid near Sinjar in October of that year uncovered hundreds of al Qaeda documents listing foreign fighters who had passed through the area.

Now another -- much more powerful -- surge of Islamist militancy threatens the existence of one of the Middle East's most vulnerable peoples.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/meast/iraq-ethnic-groups-under-threat-isis/index.html


Yazidi survivor recalls horror of evading ISIS

LornaDoone wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/world/gallery/kurdistan-rescue-mission-mount-sinjar/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The picture of the old man followed by the baby made me cry.

Images like these remind me to be grateful for what I have and for where I live.  We all have problems but too often, there are others who have it much worse.  Be thankful, be grateful don't squander the gifts you are given.

Live life to its fullest.  Don't get bogged down in pettiness and spitefulness.  

Will keep that as my mantra.

LornaDoone wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/world/gallery/kurdistan-rescue-mission-mount-sinjar/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The picture of the old man followed by the baby made me cry.

Images like these remind me to be grateful for what I have and for where I live.  We all have problems but too often, there are others who have it much worse.  Be thankful, be grateful don't squander the gifts you are given.

Live life to its fullest.  Don't get bogged down in pettiness and spitefulness.  

Will keep that as my mantra.

Atalante wrote:LINK Oh the MEN on this planet !

Silje wrote:
This is a new theory. Supposedly Edward Snowdons leaks shows that US and the Brits and the Mossad created ISIS.

This sounds like a conspiracy theory.

Katiedot wrote:Not necessarily.  The US and UK have armed all sorts of psychobatshitnutjobs in the past with the aim of destabilising a regime, apparently giving no thought whatsoever to what happens afterwards.  One would hope Mossad aren't that stupid, but . . .

One of the most widely held beliefs across the Middle East is 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' and who knows if Israel also subscribe to that lunacy?