Thousands of Yazidis Evacuated from Mount Sinjar

The Pentagon said Wednesday that U.S. airstrikes and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters had broken the Islamic State’s siege of Mount Sinjar, allowing thousands of the Yazidis trapped there to escape. (The New York Times, 14 August)

On Tuesday, a dozen U.S. Marines and Special Operations forces landed on Mount Sinjar to assess the situation and confirmed that there were far fewer Yazidis on the mountain than expected. The Pentagon credited U.S. airstrikes and Peshmerga fighters for allowing thousands of Yazidis to evacuate from the mountains each night over the past several days.

Photo credit: Displaced yazidis crossing Iraq-Syria border on Wednesday. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP-Getty Images/New York Times)

Islamic State Overruns Zumar and Sinjar - UPDATE

The Islamic State on Saturday overran towns of Zumar and Sinjar after fierce clashes with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with reports of heavy casualties on both sides. The towns, west of Mosul, have Kurdish majorities, although not part of the KRG. The IS is apparently attempting to secure areas that it is contesting against the Kurds. 

The Islamic State also captured Zumar and Ein Zalah oilfields in the area. Iraq’s North Oil Company said on Saturday the Islamic State has taken control of oil fields in the area of Zumar, with daily production of 20,000 barrels. It also said it expects that the IS militants will load the shipments of produced crude oil in these fields and sell them in the black market, the Iraqi News reported today.

UPDATE: Later on Sunday, the Islamic State captured Wana, a strategic town near the Tigris River — putting them within striking distance of the Mosul Dam. Wana is the third town captured by IS this weekend. The capture of the dam would put northern Iraq in great jeopardy as the IS could unleash a deadly flood on large populations. (New York Times, 3 August)

File photo: Al Arabiya