Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

FOX News

White House ‘deeply concerned’ over reports of renewed ISIS advance against Yazidis
By Judson Berger and Justin Fishel

The White House said Wednesday it is “deeply concerned” by reports that Islamic State militants are advancing on the same Yazidi community in Iraq whose plight prompted the U.S. military to intervene two months ago in an attempt to save the religious minorities from “genocide.”

The airdrops of supplies and military intervention in August were credited with helping Yazidis trapped in and around Mount Sinjar escape a siege by Islamic State forces. But new reports claim members of the religious sect are calling anew for U.S. help as Islamic State militants seize villages and once again force them to seek refuge on the mountain.

The developments come as the U.S.-backed coalition focuses on the fiercely contested Syrian border town of Kobani, launching airstrikes and airdropping weapons in support of Kurdish fighters.

Asked Wednesday about the attacks near Mount Sinjar, National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey told FoxNews.com the Obama administration is “deeply concerned by reports of ISIL’s increasingly intense attacks against communities near and on Mount Sinjar, including against [Yazidis] who are attempting to protect the remaining civilian population.”

Baskey added: “We are looking into these reports and continue to assess the situation and what assistance we may be able to provide to those in need.”

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby also was asked at a briefing Tuesday about the Yazidis’ situation, but could not provide details on reports that villages had been seized.

“That said,” Kirby said, “we certainly have been tracking ISIL's interest in and around Mount Sinjar. And you've seen of late -- there's been a couple of airstrikes done in and around there, so we're watching that.”

Islamic State advances on that community would represent a setback for the U.S.-led effort. The Yazidis’ plight was a major factor in President Obama’s decision to launch aid drops – and military action – in Iraq, before eventually expanding that campaign into Syria. Eventually, thousands of Yazidis were able to escape from Mount Sinjar.

But Reuters reports that ISIS militants advanced on the mountain on Tuesday, attacking Yazidi residential areas and forcing them up Mount Sinjar, again.

"We are outnumbered and outgunned,” one Yazidi volunteer told Reuters.

The Washington Post reported that the militants had seized villages and were blocking roads, as the volunteers protecting the area for more than two months were forced to pull back.

A U.N. official was quoted telling reporters on Tuesday that the actions against the minority group may amount to “attempted genocide.”

Reuters also quoted a Yazidi lawmaker questioning why U.S. planes were hitting ISIS positions in Kobani but not around Mount Sinjar.

Kobani increasingly has drawn the resources of the U.S.-led coalition, which has used the amassing of ISIS fighters in the border town as an opportunity to take out large numbers of targets.

The U.S. reportedly is collaborating more closely with Kurdish commanders, though, to save Kobani from falling to Islamic State militants.

The U.S. launched more strikes near Kobani on Tuesday, as well as a dozen strikes in Iraq near the Mosul Dam.

Earlier this week, the U.S.-led coalition also airdropped weapons to Kurdish fighters in the Kobani area. Following claims, though, that one of those bundles ended up in ISIS hands, the Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday this may be the case.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steven Warren said one bundle “went astray and was destroyed.” But, he said, “we have determined that a second bundle also went astray and probably fell into enemy hands."

He said they have “no reason to doubt” that a web video claiming ISIS got the bundle is “legitimate,” but "the fact that one or two bundles went astray is not of any real concern to us."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10 ... t-yazidis/

[Anthea]

Breitbart

Exclusive:
Yazidi Commander Killed by ISIS;
Massacres Feared on Mt. Sinjar

A leading commander of Yazidi volunteer forces resisting the advance of ISIS guerrillas was killed by mortar fire on Wednesday, according to Breitbart News sources. Khairi Murad Shex Khider, who led several hundred Yazidi fighters in the area of Skiniya, died after running out of ammunition and being hit by ISIS mortars while trying to retreat and resupply. Yazidi activists now fear that Mt. Sinjar could be overrun by ISIS without U.S. help.

In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Yazidi activist Murad Hasan Ismail said:

Khairi led about 300 to 400 Yazidi fighters, a group of local volunteers who proved highly effective in defending Yazidi villages against ISIL. Khairi Murad's group of volunteer defenders caused more damage to ISIL than any other group in Sinjar...

A representation of resistance against the ISIL invasion, the loss of Khairi Murad Shex Khider is devastating for Yazidis worldwide. He was one of the few figures that has defended Sinjar on the frontline with ISIL, in the absence of any protection from Iraqi or Kurdish forces. Khairi was a leading figure of the Yazidi Protection Forces that--with few weapons and little aid--have prevented ISIL from conquering parts of Mt. Sinjar until today. When the Kurdish Peshmerga fled upon the initial ISIL attack on Aug. 3, it was a few volunteer leaders like Khairi Murad who stayed to defend the civilians that remained in their villages on the mountain....

This loss will create a vacuum, especially on the southern side of Mt. Sinjar, which will be a possible route for ISIL to take the whole mountain, possibly in a very short time....We don't have time; we are in danger of losing Sinjar entirely which will make several thousand more civilians vulnerable to ISIL's campaign of slaughter and kidnapping.

According to sources, Khairi had been fighting ISIS fighters who had attempted to "infiltrate" the area "dressed in women clothes." Airstrikes against ISIS have helped, but more aid is needed, according to a quote from a Yazidi fighter provided to Breitbart News: "The mountain is sieged from all four directions, we can only receive supplies by air, which is very rare and we are in dire need for ammunition, heavy weapons, and food."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014 ... -Mt-Sinjar

[Anthea]

Reuters

Islamic State militants seize Iraq village, press assault on Yazidis
By Saif Sameer and Ned Parker

Islamic State wrested a Sunni Muslim village in western Iraq on Thursday from tribal defenders who put up weeks of fierce resistance, and the insurgents tightened a siege of the Yazidi minority on a mountain in the north.

The attacks showed Islamic State's continued operating resilience despite air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces aimed at defeating the ultra-radical Sunni jihadist group, which has captured large expanses of Iraq and neighboring Syria, beheaded prisoners and massacred people from other religious communities, and declared a medieval-style caliphate.

The Albu Nimr tribe had been fending off Islamic State (IS) since early October but finally lost the village of Zauiyat albu Nimr in the western province of Anbar overnight on Thursday.

A small Iraqi army unit was stationed in the village but evacuated by helicopter in the early hours of Thursday, along with leaders from the Albu Nimr, a tribal figure from the village told Reuters in Baghdad.

Residents said the bodies of tribal fighters and soldiers lay strewn in the streets of Zauiyat albu Nimr on Thursday, and the very few who survived the onslaught had been told by IS insurgents to drop their weapons and leave.

"Islamic State are out to purge the village of Bu Nimr members," said the tribal figure in Baghdad. “Sleeper cells inside the village have been assisting the Islamic State by providing the names and the locations of the houses of prominent resistance members.

"A list of 200 names that include the high officers in our village has been set and all of these names are to be killed.”

The fall of Zauiyat albu Nimr leaves remaining areas under government control in Anbar more vulnerable to seizure by IS, which overran the regional city of Hit early this month.

Islamic State holds much of western Anbar and is looking to isolate pockets of resistance, including the Ain al-Asad air base and the Haditha Dam.

MOUNT SINJAR

U.S. President Barack Obama authorized air strikes on IS in Iraq in August, citing the duty to prevent an impending genocide of minority Yazidis at the hands of the jihadist insurgents who attacked them around Sinjar Mountain.

Yazidis follow an ancient faith derived from Zoroastrianism. IS considers the Yazidis to be devil worshippers and has killed or captured hundreds and sold many into slavery in a campaign to wipe out the religious minority.

The air strikes helped Kurdish regional forces stem IS advances in northern Iraq and relieved some of the pressure on Sinjar so that a corridor could be opened to evacuate thousands of Yazidis from the mountain.

But Kurdish peshmerga forces have not been able to secure Sinjar, and on Monday, IS militants renewed their assault on the mountain in the northwest Iraq near the Syrian frontier.

Yazidi fighters on the mountain pleaded for assistance to avert more bloodshed and said their weapons were ineffective against armored Humvee vehicles used by Islamic State.

"The situation is really bad and it's worsening by the minute," said Barakat, a fighter on the mountain. "We are surrounded by IS militants from all four directions. The streets at the foot of the mountain are completely under IS control."

Barakat said 500-600 families were stranded on the mountain and although helicopters occasionally dropped supplies and picked up some civilians, they could only lift a small number of people to safety each time.

Awar, another Yazidi fighter, said there were many IS militants on the eastern side of the mountain: "There's a strong possibility that a large scale attack is coming tonight or tomorrow morning."

Yazidi combatants said they were short on supplies including food and clothing. "The fighters are holding the ground and are putting a stop to any attempt at climbing the mountain," said a third fighter who asked to remain unnamed. "We will stay here and fight IS in order to protect our land and our holy shrines."

GOD HELP THEM

NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO CARE

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... 2B20141023

[Anthea]

Al Arabiya

Yazidi female fighter recalls horrifying ISIS massacre

A Yazidi woman, who believes she has lost her family in a massacre in which Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants reportedly killed hundreds of the ethnic minority community in northern Iraq, has taken up a fight against the militants group and is determined to reclaim her land back.

“I will never forgive! I have promised myself that before I die I will return to Shengal,” Robjon told Kurdish journalist Khazar Fatemi in a video report published in the Huffington Post, referring to her hometown, from which she managed to escape before it was completely seized by ISIS.

She has taken up arms with YPG, the national army of Syria’s Kurdistan, and joined their fight against the group.

“They had killed some 600 men and kidnapped the women and kids,” Robjob said.

ISIS revealed earlier this month that it was selling Yazidi women, which were kidnapped earlier.

Recalling the horrifying events prior to the massacre that took place last August, Robjon said that she managed to escape with others to Mount Sinjar located west to Iraq’s Mosul, but her entire family was stuck in the town.

“When I got to the [Sinjar] mountain I called them. They said ‘we are surrounded we can’t get out!’... The next time I called they didn’t answer,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“A few days later we were informed that everyone in our village had been killed,” she added.

The young woman has been playing tough and trying to remain focused on her fight, but it was clear that her heart was burning just by the thought of her family.

“I always feel like crying. I hide behind a wall so my friends won’t see me, and I cry… I think about my little sister and wonder what ISIS did to her,” she said.

Further threat

ISIS militants besieged about 700 Yazidi families in Mount Sinjar, where those who escaped had sought refuge, security sources told Al Arabiya News Channel last Monday.

Meanwhile, head of the spiritual council for Yazidis, Tahsin Ali Saeed, pleaded the international community to help protect his people from “extermination.”

Link to Article and Photos:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... sacre.html

[Anthea]

FOX News

Renewed ISIS attacks leave Yazidi fighters in Iraq pleading for help

Yazidi fighters protecting hundreds of families trapped on Iraq’s Mount Sinjar are pleading for help over fears that a “large scale attack” by the Islamic State is imminent.

After weeks of resistance, tribal defenders of the Yazidi religious minority were besieged by Islamic State jihadists on the mountain on Monday.

"The situation is really bad and it's worsening by the minute," Barakat, a fighter on the mountain told Reuters. "We are surrounded by IS militants from all four directions. The streets at the foot of the mountain are completely under IS control."

The fighter said 500-600 families are stranded on the mountain and helicopters that have been dropping supplies can only evacuate small numbers of people at a time.

Awar, another Yazidi fighter, said Thursday that ISIS militants are amassing on the eastern side of the mountain, according to Reuters.

"There's a strong possibility that a large scale attack is coming tonight or tomorrow morning," he added.

Yazidi fighters – who are short on supplies, like food and clothing – are pleading for more assistance, as their weapons are proving to be ineffective against Humvees operated by ISIS militants.

"The fighters are holding the ground and are putting a stop to any attempt at climbing the mountain," a third fighter, who asked to remain unnamed, told Reuters.. "We will stay here and fight IS in order to protect our land and our holy shrines."

Fighter Khalef Mamu told AFP that 1,200 fighters helped to defend the mountain and a commander of forces for the Yazidi religious minority was killed during an attack on Wednesday night.

“The humanitarian situation became very difficult because there is little food,” said Mamu.

Commander Dawud Jundi told AFP that 300 Islamic fighters seized nearby villages and then turned their focus to Mount Sinjar.

That renewed attack began at dawn on Monday when Islamic fighters attacked the southern part of the Mount Sinjar using Humvees and armored vehicles. Yazidi civilians were forced to retreat up the mountain where they are now trapped.

Earlier this year, thousands of mainly Yazidi civilians were trapped by Islamic State fighters, prompting the U.S. to pursue an airstrike campaign against the militant group.

ISIS has killed hundreds of Yazidis and has forced tens of thousands of others to flee for their lives since sweeping across Iraq, according to The Associated Press.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/24 ... -for-help/

[Anthea]

Save YEZIDIS!

The demonstrations in Washington DC included the depiction of
Sex Slavery inflicted on the Yezidi Community by ISIL/ISIS

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=95 ... 914&set=vb.

[Anthea]

Clashes in Sinjar: Newsticker for 24th October

+++ 15:45 pm +++
ISIS terrorists are attacking the Meme Reshan sanctuary with mortar shells. The terrorists managed to climb the south side of the mountain, coming within reach of resistance fighters and the sanctuary. The clashes are ongoing.

+++ 15:15 pm+++
Heavy clashes between resistance units and ISIS terrorists in the southern part of Mount Sinjar. With a large contingent of fighters, the terrorists are trying to reach and destroy the Ezidi sanctuary Meme Reshan. Resistance fighters are being attacked with mortar shells, calling for aistrikes against ISIS.

+++ 14:40 pm +++
German Ezidis who are fighting against ISIS on Mount Sinjar call on the German government not to `forsake´ them and help them out. If the resistance fighters are taken captive, no ransom should be paid in order to `fund the cycle of terrorism´, a German citizen of Ezidi origin asked via Facebook. Sheikh Kheri, a commander of the Ezidi resistance units lost his life in clashes on Tuesday. He was also a German citizen. Around 10,000 Ezidis are still trapped in Mount Sinjar, being surrounded by ISIS terrorists. More than 50 resistance fighters have died in the recent day´s clashes so far.

+++ 14:23 pm +++
Commanders of Sinjar´s Protection Unit HPS report that 15 ISIS terrorists have been killed in the last few hours in clashes in Mihirkan. The fightings are ongoing.

+++ 13:30 am +++
ISIS terrorists are trying to advance into the mountain from Sinjar´s largest cement factory. In order to climb to the top of the hills, the terrorists have gone over to use donkeys as a means of transportation.

+++ 13:20 am+++
More ISIS convoys from Mosul and Tel Afar as well as the Syrian-Iraqi border are heading to Mount Sinjar.

+++ 13:15 am +++
Sinjar´s Protection Unit HPS has just repelled an ISIS attack on the pilgrimage site Pire Ewra, killing five terrorists and seizing their weapons.

+++ 11:20 am +++
Our correspondent in Sinjar reports that six armed ISIS vehicles were destroyed yesterday in airstrikes occurred in Sinjar city.

http://ezidipress.com/en/clashes-in-sin ... h-october/

[Anthea]

Reuters

Kurdish forces retake north Iraqi town from Islamic State
(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Kurdish forces retook the northern Iraqi town of Zumar and several nearby villages from Islamic State early on Saturday after heavy coalition air strikes against the Islamist insurgents, security sources said.

A Kurdish intelligence officer in Zumar said peshmerga forces had advanced from five directions in the early morning and encountered fierce resistance, but ultimately prevailed. A spokesman for the peshmerga ministry also said Zumar was now in Kurdish hands.

Zumar was one of the first Kurdish-controlled towns to be overrun in August by Islamic State militants who went on to threaten the autonomous region's capital, prompting air strikes by the United States - a campaign since joined by Britain and France.

If the Kurds are able to keep Zumar, it would make it easier for them to advance on Sinjar, where Islamic State militants are besieging members of Iraq's Yazidi minority on a mountain.

Helped by the air strikes, Kurdish forces have regained ground from Islamic State but progress has been hampered by a lack of heavy weaponry and by homemade bombs and booby-traps laid by the militants.

The Kurds claimed victory in Zumar in September, only to withdraw from the town again after suffering heavy losses.

One peshmerga fighter deployed in the area on Saturday said a sniper was still at large in a village adjacent to Zumar, and a car bomb had exploded when they approached the vehicle, killing seven peshmerga.

In another village, Ayn al-Helwa, the peshmerga said 17 militants had been taken captive, all of whom were Sunni Turkmen from the nearby Iraqi city of Tel Afar.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... nnel=11563

[Anthea]

In another village, Ayn al-Helwa, the peshmerga said 17 militants had been taken captive, all of whom were Sunni Turkmen from the nearby Iraqi city of Tel Afar.

I - personally - have NEVER trusted the Sunni Turkmen

Sunni Turkmen have a past history of turning against the Kurds

I remember that Sunni Turkmen were at one time in the pay of the Turkish government - makes me wonder if they are still in the pay of the Islamic Turkish state

[Anthea]

Ezidi religious leader, Bave Sheikh Kheto, in Washington D.C.

[Anthea]

thestar.com

Few escape Islamic State’s war on women

“Enslavement of families of the (infidels) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of Shariah,” say Islamic State militants.
By: Olivia Ward

They lay in wait for their prey. They carefully planned their attack. They struck without mercy. And when they were done, thousands of victims had disappeared.

The savagery of the Islamic State militants, who sliced through Syria and Iraq with high-tech weapons and old-fashioned swords, is no longer a surprise in the daily news. What is shocking is the extent of their brutality toward women.

It has revealed another face of the jihadists: not just ideologically driven killers, but systematic sexual predators.

“The attack on women in Sinjar (in Iraqi Kurdistan) was meant to destroy the dignity of the Yazidi community,” says Matthew Barber, a graduate student at University of Chicago and expert on the Yazidis. “But it was more than that. Their prime motivation was sexual.”

Yazidis, a religious minority of up to 600,000 in Iraq, have been persecuted for centuries as heretics. Islamic State militants attacked them in early August, killing hundreds or more and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.

According to witnesses, survivors and a recent UN report, captured women and girls were systematically separated from the men and told to convert to Islam or face execution or sexual violence.

“Women and children who refused to convert were being allotted to (Islamic State) fighters or were being trafficked . . . in markets in Mosul and to Raqqa in Syria,” the report said. “Married women who converted were told that their previous marriages were not recognized in Islamic law and that they, as well as unmarried women who converted, would be given to (jihadists) as wives.”

Those selected to be sold off like cattle are reportedly priced at between $25 and $1,000. But some have been executed and others have committed suicide. The UN report said that captured teenage boys as well as girls were also routinely sexually assaulted by jihadists.

As the estimated number of enslaved Yazidi women and girls has escalated to 7,000, efforts to rescue them have also stepped up, with groups inside and outside of Iraq struggling to find ways to pluck them from the clutches of their tormentors.

“We sleep only about two hours a night,” says Murad Ismael of the U.S.-based Sinjar Crisis Management Team. “We have taken time away from our jobs. We have been able to help some get free, but thousands are in (Islamic State’s) hands. Their lives are heartbreaking.”

In Iraqi Kurdistan, Yazidis and their supporters are working on rescue strategies for the women and girls, whose futures appear grim as the Islamic State continues its advances.

Some rescuers were desperate enough to hire a gang of gunmen to break into an Islamic State compound and carry the kidnapped girls to safety. They had been used by the jihadis as domestic servants and told they would live as their wives.

Barber said that one, who was only 15, “was tortured for resisting the demands of her captor for sex. Another suffered such severe psychological trauma due to the kidnapping, subsequent rape and being shipped across Iraq that she is now very ill.”

Amina Hasan, a former Iraqi parliamentarian and Yazidi rights advocate, has met some of the few who have returned.

“If they manage to get out they have been through terrible experiences,” she said in a phone interview from Kurdistan. “Most say they were assaulted by one man then passed on to another and another. Some tried to commit suicide.”

The Islamic State militants are proud to admit that their vicious treatment of the Yazidis is not mere casual brutality.

It is deliberately targeted against the small Yazidi religious sect, who have been mistakenly condemned as “devil worshipers.” They number up to 1 million worldwide, the majority in Kurdish-speaking northern Iraq.

Earlier this month the Islamic State’s English website, Dabiq, boasted of reviving what they called historically sanctioned practices toward non-Muslim women: “enslavement of families of the (infidels) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Quran and the narrations of the Prophet.”

But Barber, who was in Kurdistan this summer during the assault on the Yazidis, and extensively researched the Islamic State kidnappings, believes the jihadists are not just ideologically driven killers but calculating sexual predators.

“They wanted to obtain sex slaves,” he said. “They didn’t just attack the area and find women there that they decided to seize. They planned it carefully. They had trucks ready to carry them off. They met fleeing cars and separated men from women and hauled them off. It’s an enslavement project that takes women as sexual objects.”

The militants justify their actions through an extreme and archaic version of Islam, one that is rejected by Islamic scholars who say it was abolished by universal consensus. The UN and human rights advocates say the jihadis’ abuse of women may amount to war crimes.

A young Yazidi mother who eluded her captors told Hasan that her husband and father were dragged away from her and shot after the family was seized. The killer, still splattered with their blood, drove her to the militant centre of Mosul and gave her to an elderly man of 80.

“She was able to escape because he was sleeping one night when she woke up to hear her little son crying,” said Hasan. “She took the child outside and kept on going until she reached a house where people helped her. Now she is safe with her family, but they have nothing.”

At least 100 women have escaped or been rescued since the attacks on the Yazidis began, Hasan said. But even after their return they are living in deplorable conditions in Kurdish towns overflowing with refugees. She hopes that Canada and other countries will reach out to the kidnapped women and their shattered families.

“Today it’s raining, and the temperature is getting colder because we’re in the mountains,” she said. “Many of their tents fell down. Even if they have dry food and bedding everything gets wet. They are in bad shape but they don’t have medical or psychological attention.”

Worse still are the lives of those in captivity.

“They are being held in schools, community halls, prisons and houses,” Hasan said. “Some have been taken to Syria for the leaders and emirs. Some of the women were sold and all of the girls who were taken disappear.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/ ... women.html

[Anthea]

World Hindu Council of America (VHPA) appeal for urgent
humanitarian aid to the thousands of Yezidi refugees

Hindus Join beseiged Yezidis for DC demonstration

WASHINGTON D.C., October 24, 2014 Yezidis and Hindus came from across the U.S. to Washington D.C. to protest the thousands of Yezidis who are being targeted by ISIL in Iraq for being the only surviving non-Islamic native religious tradition . Many of their women and girls have been abducted and sold into slavery and their homes and lands overrun by ISIL, which. is methodically targeting them for slavery, conversion and death.

The terror ISIL army has murdered thousands of Yezidis in its rampage across the Middle East. This week ISIL has again laid siege to the Yezidi’s Holy Mt Shingal, the last remaining outpost of Yezidi resistance. The truly heroic efforts of the Yezidi, combined with some support from the Iraqi and coalition forces, have so far managed to maintain their hold of the strategic mountain. The situation, however, is a desperate one as the entire mountain is currently surrounded by ISIL.

Despite the Yezidi successes in the field they are in a desperate situation, low on ammunition, food, water and other basic supplies. Just two days ago, their most successful military commander Khairi Murad Shex Khider was killed in combat. This loss could have been avoided if he and his troops had not run out of ammunition.





As the world is responding to the ISIL threat, the Yezidis seem to have been forgotten although they are primary targets of the terrorists. There are currently over 7,000 Yezidi women and girls that have been kidnapped and enslaved by the terror group. Thousands of Yezidi men and boys have been massacred and many others forced to convert to Islam literally at the point of the sword. Marked for extinction as ’devil worshiping’ heathens, the Yezidi are shown absolutely no mercy. Lacking the political and military infrastructure of their neighbors, the Yezidis’ plight is being ignored by the world at large.

In an effort to raise awareness among the public and to urge the U.S. government and its’ forty-member anti-ISIL coalition into action, Yezidis from across the USA and Canada gathered in DC for a demonstration at the White House. In a unique display of solidarity, the Hindu community also came out in force joining hands with the Yezidi people. Together they urged the US government to take action. In a vivid reminder of the barbarism of ISIL the protesters reenacted the ‘Slave auction’. Women dressed in Burqas were chained together and ‘sold’ for prices ranging from $10-300 per ‘slave’.

With shouts of ‘Bring Our Women Back!’ and ‘Save Mt Shingal’ the demonstrators urged President Obama to take effective action in defense of the Yezidis fighting on Mt Shingal and to provide assistance in the rescue of the thousands of enslaved Yezidi women and girls.

Coinciding with the protest was the visit of a high level Yezidi delegation from Iraq. Baba Sheik, a leading member of that delegation, joined in the White House demonstration as well. Demonstrators also met with several lawmakers and interacted with the media.

The Yezidi call for action was reinforced by the strong show of support from the Hindu community in the greater DC area. Recognizing in the Yezidis a kindred community confronted by the same challenges and struggles, the Hindu community issued an appeal for donations and humanitarian aid on behalf of the struggling Yezidis. Currently those Yezidis not imprisoned by ISIL are stranded in squalid refugee camps spanning the region from Turkey to Syria and Iraq. As winter approaches the refugees are lacking many basic necessities like water, medicine, sanitation and blankets.

People can support the Yezidi by donating to the SEWA USA Yezidi fund. http://www.sewausa.org/files/uploads/20 ... waUSA.html

Rally Co-ordinator : Murad Hasan Ismail

sinjar.crisis@gmail.com

8326384348

Utsav Chakrabarti
Relations Coordinator, World Hindu Council of America (VHPA)
http://www.vhp-america.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vishwa.sampark

http://worldhindunews.com/2014102534395 ... -refugees/

[Anthea]

Bas News

Kurdish Yazidi Commander: Peshmerga Start Attack to Free Sinjar

Kurdish Yazidi Commander on Mount Sinjar, Qassem Darbo has said that Peshmerga forces have formulated a plan to free Sinjar from Islamic State (IS), to which the militants will have no answer.

In a statement to BasNews after Zumar Town was retaken from IS insurgents, Darbo confirmed that the insurgents have suffered heavily losses inside Sinjar as well.

“We have a strong and powerful plan to liberate Sinjar from IS militants, and we are ready to attack the town,” said Darbo.

He also revealed that IS militants have recently launched a series attacks on Peshmerga bases in order to reach Mount Sinjar and the well-known tomb of Yazidi Sharafaddin. However Peshmerga forces responded to the attack with heavy weapons, forcing IS back to better-held positions.

A source from Mount Sinjar told BasNews that Peshmerga forces have been attacking IS insurgents in Sinjar from four sides, claiming gains in some areas.

“This is the first time that Peshmerga forces have attacked from four sides since IS took control of the town,” said the source.

He continued, “Peshmerga forces used heavy weapons in the attacks. IS militants have suffered a large number of casualties and a number of militants have been killed.”

IS leaders have retreated from Zumar to Mosul and there are a very small number of militants left inside Sinjar. This advantage should, according to the source, make the retaking of Sinjar straightforward.

“The recent attack of IS insurgents on Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar was a tactic attempting to divert Peshmerga from an assault on the town of Sinjar,” added the source.

http://basnews.com/en/News/Details/Kurd ... jar-/39827

[Anthea]

New Yazidi Temple in Kalkar Germany

[Anthea]

Ezidi Spiritual leader Baba Seikh's visit to the Murugan Temple in Washington DC on Wednesday