UPDATE: There are reports that Peshmerga forces have reached Yazidis on Mount Sinjar on Thursday night and evacuation is underway.
Iraqis
appealed for emergency help for thousands of Yazidis stranded on a mountaintop
in the country’s northwest, with little food or water. The Yazidis fled Sinjar
after the Islamic State fighter overran the town previously controlled by
Kurdish Peshmerga forces last weekend.
An
estimated 10,000-40,000 of them sought refuge on the peaks of Mount Sinjar, the
Washington Post reported today. Peshmerga forces have so far failed to break
through IS’s lines to reach them. The Iraqi government conducted two airdrops
to help the refugees on Wednesday.
Meanwhile,
the Islamic State extended gains in northern Iraq on Thursday, seizing more
towns and strengthening a foothold near the Kurdish region. The IS fighters
captured Tilkaif, Iraq’s biggest Christian town, forcing thousands of residents
to flee. (Reuters, 7 August)
The
Islamic State said in a statement on its Twitter account that since its latest
offensive began at the weekend, its fighters have seized 15 towns, a military
base, and the strategic Mosul dam on the Tigris. Kurdish officials say the
Peshmerga forces still control the dam.
Photo
credit: Displaced families from the Yazidi sect
fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, just west of Mosul, and took
refuge at Dohuk province. 4 August 2014. (Ari Jala/Reuters/Washington Post)
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