Posts Tagged ‘Safin Hamed’
Testimonies from Mosul, Sinjar, and north Iraq towns…: How Yazidi minorities are coping with the ISIS onslaught?
Posted on: August 10, 2014
Testimonies from Mosul, Sinjar, Zummar: How Yazidi minorities are coping with the ISIS onslaught?
And finally Obama authorises Iraq air strikes against Isis (BY DAN ROBERTS)
‘We need to act, and act now’ says US president, as military carries out aid drops to Iraqi civilians forced to flee by Islamist ISIS group
And Obama dispatched 130 military advisers to Erbil to secure the US consulate and started to bomb by drones and F18 moving artillery regiments of ISIS near the Erbil borders.
For many months all kinds of minorities living in the northern provinces of Iraq, particularly Mosul, have been fleeing the carnage and exactions of the extremist Wahhabi terrorist factions. All kinds of Christian sects, Yazidi, and all Muslim sects that are considered heretics have been persecuted.
And Obama and all the Western governments kept their silence and refused to react to the atrocities and genocides committed in Iraq and in Gaza.
So why Obama decided to act now a little and reluctantly?
Obama said it clearly: The ISIS have crossed the red lines and approached quickly toward the refugee camps near Erbil in Kurdistan Iraq. The US has vast investment in Kurdistan, a self-autonomous province where businesses are mushrooming as during the Far West style of “Faite comme chez vous”.
And Obama has no confidence that the Kurdish Bishmerka militias can stop the advances of ISIS.
Actually, these Kurdish autonomous armies have fled promptly as ISIS advanced toward their positions and left the minorities fend for themselves and refused to provide them with necessary means for fleeing or survival.
This report was sent to us by Ms. Christina Patto, VP Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq.
Here what she wrote: Here is our report and some of our testimony concerning the events happening now in North of Iraq.
It is a tragic situation, nobody can imagine how terrible it is, as much as I write to you and send you reports it will not be enough to describe the suffering of people.
For Zummar and Sinjar: they are under Da’esh control, thousands of Yazidis died in the last two days, they are facing a real genocide. Hundreds have been buried alive in mass graves.
Till yesterday (45) children died of thirst. Some families throw their children from the top of Sinjar mountain in order not to see them die from hunger or thirst, or not to be taken by the terrorists. (1500) men were killed in front of their wives and families, (50) old men died also from thirst and illness.
More than (70) girl and women (including Christians) were taken, raped and being captured and sold. More than (100) families are captured in Tel Afar airport.
Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar sit Tuesday at a school where they are taking shelter, in the city of Dohuk in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. (Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images)
Report from Iraq: families throwing children from a mountain to keep them from terrorists
August 6, 2014 byThe nightmare that is Iraq gets worse. This was just posted at the CNEWA blog:There is about (50) Christian families in Sinjar. The terrorists were able to control the Syriac church there and cover the Cross with their black banner.
Till now we do not know anything about those Christian families.
For Nineveh Plain: As a reason to the continuous bombing on Telkeif, Deacon (Lujain Hikmat Nano) died, most of the families left their houses and would leave one member of the family in the house, but this tragic led to an exodus from Telkeif. the same thing happened in Shekhan and the surrounded villages (shekhan center, Karanjo, Dashqotan and Ein biqri). Ba’ashiqa: an exodus from there because there was boming and battles near Ba’ashiqa as the terrorists are trying to control that area too.
Ba’ashiqa Monastery is being evacuated from the inhabitants and from IDPs.
Ein Sifni: an exodus of the Yazidi families which forced the christian families to flee too.
Mosul Falls (Dam where most electricity is produced for the province) are now under the control of the terrorist, these fall are about (10-15 Km) from Ein sifni.
Batnaye and Tellisquf: also an exodus because of the threats and bad circumstances they are going through.
Duhok: Our Dorm, the empty houses in the villages, the halls of the churches, school and mosques are full of IDPs and in very bad conditions. I cannot give you the exact number of those families. Also it is very hard to describe their needs in food baskets only, on one can imagine this tragedy, one may cry to see those people in this situation. Concerning Zakho and Center Duhok: Till now they are under the KRG control.
Meantime, additional details from The Washington Post:
Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst.
Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.
Unable to dig deep into the rocky mountainside, displaced families said they have buried young and elderly victims of the harsh conditions in shallow graves, their bodies covered with stones.
Iraqi government planes attempted to airdrop bottled water to the mountain on Monday night but reached few of those marooned. “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads,” said Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.” Most of those who fled Sinjar are from the minority Yazidi sect, which melds parts of ancient Zoroastrianism with Christianity and Islam. They are considered by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State to be devil worshipers and apostates…. …
“Children have died because of dehydration and lack of food,” Vian Dakheel, a Yazidi parliamentarian from Sinjar, said through tears. “My people are being slaughtered (and women and girls sold in open markets as slaves)” she continued, referring to reports of mass killings of those who had stayed behind.
Note 1: Vian Dakheel, woman deputy of Kurdistan, explained that refugees in the south side of Mount Sinjar has no exit route, are trapped and encircled by ISIS and will certainly die, one way or another. Those who managed to reach the northern side of Mount Sinjar have an opening to flee to neighboring towns and have been receiving airdrop supplies.
Vian recounted a typical testimony: A mother with 6 children had her husband and male sons slaughtered. She fled with the little girls. Two of the youngest died of thirst. A crippled daughter was left to die. The mother is trying to save her remaining daughter by walking, and keep walking to safety and water and food.
Note 2: Israel has a major Mossad headquarter in Erbil since 1980’s and is the agency distributing the funds received from Saudi Arabia to the various extremist Islamic factions in Iraq and Syria.
When Iraq PM Maleki declared that ISIS main headquarter is in Erbil, he meant exactly the close association of Israel and these salafist factions for funding and planing the expansion of this “Islamist State”.
Show me in maps: Iraq-ISIS Conflict
Posted on: June 27, 2014
ISIS partial or complete control Contested 
Recent fighting
| Al Waleed There were unconfirmed reports that government forces had fled. Frightened police officers, reached by telephone, said that the army had already left and that the police scattered when militants arrived. | Qaim ISIS captured this crossing on Friday. Bukamal, on the Syrian side, was also out of government control, with groups including the Free Syrian Army and Al Nusra Front maintaining a strong presence. | Rabia Kurdish forces secured this crossing following the fall of Mosul. Yaroubia, on the Syrian side, is controlled by Kurdish forces of a different political affiliation. |
KEY Sunni majority Shiite majority Christian majority Mixed areas
2003
Sadr
City
Kadhimiya
Adhamiya
BAGHDAD
Green Zone
Baghdad
Airport
Tigris River
2 MILES
2009
Adhamiya
Huriya
BAGHDAD
Green Zone
Amiriya
Baghdad
Airport
Tigris River
2 MILES
2003: Before the Invasion
Before the American invasion, Baghdad’s major sectarian groups lived mostly side by side in mixed neighborhoods.
The city’s Shiite and Sunni populations were roughly equal, according to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert.
2009: Violence Fuels Segregation
Sectarian violence exploded in 2006. Families living in areas where another sect was predominant were threatened with violence if they did not move.
By 2009 Shiites were a majority, with Sunnis reduced to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the population.
• Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.
• Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.
• The Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.
• Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
• Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.
• More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.
• Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.
• Neighborhoods east of the Tigris Riverare generally more densely populated than areas to the west.
Source: Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project
ABOUT 100
MILES TO
MOSUL
ABOUT 50 MILES
TO KIRKUK
Power
plant
1
Tigris
River
Oil refinery
Employee
dormitories
Village
Employee
village
Village
Smoke plume
at 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday.
Baiji
ABOUT 115 MILES
TO BAGHDAD
1 MILE
KEY Towns attacked 
Bomb attacks
ABOUT 140 MILES
TO MOSUL
MILES FROM
CENTRAL BAGHDAD
ABOUT 80 MILES
TO KIRKUK
70
Adhaim
JUNE 15
Samarra
JUNE 11, 13, 17
60
Al-Mutasim
JUNE 14
Dhuluiya
JUNE 12
50
Ishaqi
Muqdadiya
The Iraqi army retook control of Ishaqi and Muqdadiya on June 14. In Muqdadiya, a Shiite militia assisted the government forces.
40
Dujail
JUNE 14
30
Militants took control of several neighborhoods inBaquba on June 16 but were repulsed by security officers after a three-hour gun battle.
Baquba
JUNE 16, 17
Tarmiyah
JUNE 11
20
Falluja and many towns in the western province of Anbar have been under ISIS control for about six months.
Tigris
River
10
At least five bomb attacks occurred in Baghdad, mainly in Shiite areas, in the week after the rebel group took Mosul.
Sadr City
Kadhimiya
Falluja
Bab al-Sheikh
Al-Bab Al-Sharqi
Baghdad
Saidiyah
100
80
60
Attacks That Could Be Attributed to ISIS
40
20
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Mosul
Kirkuk
Baghdad
IRAQ
Basra
2004
51 attacks
2005
58 attacks
2006
5 attacks
2007
56 attacks
2008
62 attacks
2009
78 attacks
2010
86 attacks
2011
34 attacks
2012
603 attacks
2013
419 attacks
| 2004-05 The group emerges as “Al Qaeda in Iraq” following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Its goal is to provoke a civil war. | 2006-07 The group’s February 2006 bombing of one of Iraq’s most revered Shiite shrines ignites sectarian violence across the country. After merging with several other Sunni insurgent groups, it changes its name to the Islamic State of Iraq. | 2008-10 I.S.I. claims responsibility for more than 200 attacks, many in densely-populated areas around Baghdad. | 2011-12 The group is relatively quiet for most of 2011, but re-emerges after American troops withdraw from Iraq. | 2013 Seeing new opportunities for growth, I.S.I. enters Syria’s civil war and changes its name to reflect a new aim of establishing an Islamic religious state spanning Iraq and Syria. Its success in Syria bleeds over the border to Iraq. |
Note: Before 2011, less information was available on who was responsible for attacks, so the number of ISIS attacks from 2004 to 2010 may be undercounted.
Sources: Global Terrorism Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (attack data); Congressional Research Service; Council on Foreign Relations; Long War Journal; Institute for the Study of War
Mosul
Area of
detail
Tikrit
June 13
June 10
Mosul captured
Baghdad
IRAQ
Jalawla
Kirkuk
Sadiyah
June 11
Tikrit
captured
Basra
June 12
Dhuluiya captured
June 11-12
Samarra
Tigris R.
About 110 miles
Attacks in
the days after
Mosul captured
30
June 11
Parts of Baiji
captured
20
30
Baghdad
Ishaki Dujail
June 14
Taji
Lake Tharthar
Falluja
Ramadi
Euphrates R.
After capturing Mosul, Tikrit and parts of a refinery in Baiji, insurgents attackedSamarra, where Shiite militias helped pro-government forces.
Then, they seized Jalawla and Sadiyah but were forced back by government troops backed by Kurdish forces. They continued their moves south by Ishaki and Dujail.
Deir al-ZourRaqqahQaimAl WaleedAnaHadithaHitRawaaFallujaSaadiyahHawijaMosulRamadiBaijiTikritHasakahSamarraKirkukBaqubaTal AfarAzazJalawlaRutbaIRAQSYRIAJORDANTURKEYIRANKUWAITDamascusBaghdadAleppoHamaHomsErbilBasraKarbalaNajaf
ISIS control of cities
Partial or complete
Contested
Attacks since Mosul
Sources: Caerus Associates, Long War Journal, Institute for the Study of War
TURKEY
Hasakah
Mosul
Erbil
Aleppo
Raqqa
Kirkuk
Deir al-Zour
IRAN
Baiji
SYRIA
Tikrit
Homs
Jalawla
LEBANON
Samarra
Dhuluiya
Damascus
IRAQ
Baghdad
ISRAEL
SAUDI
ARABIA
JORDAN
KUWAIT
Mosul
Kirkuk
Baiji
Tikrit
Dhuluiyah
Samarra
Ramadi
Baghdad
IRAQ
Falluja
Tigris
Euphrates River
Basra
Predominant group
Sunni Arab
Shiite Arab
Kurd
50 MILES
Mosul
Then: American forces took control of Mosul in April 2003. What followed was a period of relative peace until mid-2004 when periodic insurgent attacks flared, resulting in a large-scale battle in November.
The death toll reached dozens, including a number of Iraqi soldiers who were publicly beheaded. RELATED ARTICLE »
Now: In perhaps the most stunning recent development, Sunni militants drove Iraqi military forces out of Mosul on June 10, forcing a half-million residents to flee the city.
Iraqi soldiers reportedly dropped their weapons and donned civilian clothing to escape ISIS insurgents.
Moises Saman for The New York TimesFalluja
Then: Falluja played a pivotal role in the American invasion of Iraq. It was the site of a number of large-scale battles with insurgents.
In April 2003, it became a hot bed for controversy when American soldiers opened fire on civilians after claiming they had been shot at.
Incessant fighting left the city decimated, leveling a majority of its infrastructure and leaving about half its original population. RELATED ARTICLE »
Now: Sunni militants seized Falluja’s primary municipal buildings on Jan. 3. The takeover came as an early and significant victory for the group, initiating a slew of attacks south of the city.
Max Becherer for The New York TimesTikrit
Then: The home of Saddam Hussein, Tikrit became the target of an early American military operation during the Iraq war.
Securing it proved cumbersome, however, as insurgents mounted continued attacks on the city for years afterward.
On Dec. 14, 2003, Hussein was found hiding in an eight-foot deep hole, just south of Tikrit. RELATED ARTICLE »
Now: Tikrit fell to ISIS insurgents on June 11, clearing a path for them to march on to Baiji, home to one of Iraq’s foremost oil-refining operations.
After taking the city in less than a day, militants continued the fight just south, in Samarra.
Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesSamarra
Then: Samarra is home to the Askariya shrine, which was bombed in 2006, prompting an extended period of sectarian violence across the country. RELATED ARTICLE »
Now: After an initial attack on June 5, ISIS insurgents have now positioned themselves just miles away from Samarra.
It is unclear whether they are capable of capturing the city in the coming days, but the Shiite shrine makes it a volatile target.
Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times
Safin Hamed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An Iraqi family, one of thousands who have fled Mosul for the autonomous Kurdish region, walks past tents at a temporary camp.
Tags: A Caliphate, Adhamiya, adonis49, Al Waleed, Amiriya, ARCHIE TSE, Ayman Oghanna, Baiji Oil Refinery, BILL MARSH, Chang W. Lee, crossing at Qaim, DEREK WATKINS, Falluja, Growing Humanitarian Crisis, iraq, Iraq-ISIS Conflict, ISIS (Da3esh), JEREMY ASHKENAS, Jessica Lewis, Juan Cole, Kadhimiya, KAREN YOURISH, M. Izady, MATTHEW ERICSON, Max Becherer, Michael Izady, Moises Saman, Mosul, NILKANTH PATEL, Qaim, Rabia, Sadr City, Safin Hamed, SARAH ALMUKHTAR, syria, Tal Afar, Tikrit, TIM WALLACE
Adonis Diaries 