Kurdish forces break ISIS siege of Mount Sinjar, rescue thousands of stranded Yazidis

The Kurds have broken the siege of Mount Sinjar, and have rescued thousands of Yazidis by driving them to Dohuk, a region in northern Iraq's Kurdish region. There, the Kurdistan government has found them shelter.

The Kurds have been fighting ISIS in Sinjar for the last couple of days, where the US has aided with airstrikes.

The U.S. military carried out a new series of airstrikes Sunday against ISIS targets in Iraq, while some 20,000 Yazidi Iraqis who had been trapped on Mount Sinjar were rescued and taken to the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights spokesman Kamil Amin told CNN that Kurdish forces were able to break the siege by ISIS and help thousands of stranded Yazidis board trucks, which drove them to the Syrian border town of Hasaka near Iraq. They were then driven north along the Syrian-Iraqi border to Dohuk, a region in northern Iraq's Kurdish region.

In Dohuk, the Kurdish government helped the refugees find shelter, Amin said.

The Yazidis are a target of ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State and was known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Yazidis are part of one the world's oldest monotheistic religious minorities. Their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and the ancient monotheistic religion of Zoroastrianism.

edition.cnn.com...

It should be noted that not all of the Yazidis have been rescued, but this is great news nonetheless. Hopefully, the Kurds can continue to evacuate the people.

Very very good news, hope the Kurds can keep it up and find a place for them.

Second line... nothing else to add just happy someone got to them before they all died.

just saw, it looks like the kurds gambled to try and rescue people they lost ground in another area, that just strengthens my opinion we should be backing them if we are to back anyone in this region.

Double post.

Well, it took me on a journey to find out what Yazidis are. Interesting.

It's good that they rescued these people. They don't need to be in the middle of a fight.

Kurdistan needs to happen. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey should donate the territory to them, it would alleviate so much strife in the region between Shia and Sunni.

Ive said it before and I will say it again, the Kurds are a real beacon of hope in this troubled region of the world.
Hopefully with a population of estimated 8.3 million Kurds in northern Iraq, and millions more in neighbouring turkey and Syria, there is a chance they can finally obtain sovereignity. What happened to them throughout the 20th century needs to be looked at with closer scrutiny.. I will write a thread about this too.... It a story desperately needing to be told...we are not being given a complete picture of the real middle east....

ETA: the Kurds didn't just get guns and an militia out of nowhere, they've been fighting different regimes for decades! Stay tuned...

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
Kurdistan needs to happen. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey should donate the territory to them, it would alleviate so much strife in the region between Shia and Sunni.

I find that unlikely to happen, particularly on Turkey's end. Our alignment with the Kurds is part of a growing rift with Turkey which sees itself as the emerging power in the area and could push them into a closer orbit with Russia.

The Kurds are a great people, and they should be supported so much more. It is a shame that until this week, they weren't even supplied with ammo or weaponry from its allies, including Baghdad.

I agree with fellow posters here, that Kurdistan needs to become a sovereign state, but there are some problems to iron out first...

I don't think Turkey has a choice, it looks like Iraq is starting to realize how important the Kurds can be, and at least a few people in Turkeys govt are willing to entertain the idea...which is a huge improvement over what it used to be.

I bet the Americans will get all the praise in the western media because they bombed a few Isis scum-bags. The hero's are certainly the Kurds. Its Obama's failed fogiern policy that created Isis in Syria anyway, with allot of help from the sheiks.

I think The Kurds will never be safe in that neck of the woods and it would probably be better for The US just to take them in here and settle them in a part of our country (they helped us extensively during our occupation) and will never be safe from either Sunni or Shia Iraqis., Turks, Syrians etc. Just my opinion, we owe them one. Peace Arjunanda.a reply to: daaskapital

a reply to: aarys

oddly enough while trying to share the story on social media credit was indeed given to obama and his airstrikes and not the kurds,and i think the kurds deserve far more credit then they get as they been getting screwed with for a long time now and still take time to help others who needed their help

Well done to the kurds .. especially as theyre way underfunded and ill-equipped ..

I can see the US giving the Kurds millions in weaponry and training...

...only to see that same weaponry and training used against it 10 years later.

I don't have a crystal ball, but...

Seriously. Kudos to the Kurds, but haven't we learned our lesson about giving guns to people who, for the most part, hate our guts? This talk of "aid and support" is disappointingly ignorant of historical context.

In other words, we've tried that. It bites us in the ass every time. ISIS was created, in part, as a result of the same policy regarding the Syrian rebels.

The irony...

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
Kurdistan needs to happen. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey should donate the territory to them, it would alleviate so much strife in the region between Shia and Sunni.

Kurdistan is actually what the NeoCons are hoping for.

The ISIS were created in Jordan in order to fight agaisnt Assad and ironically they claimed that they were only training moderates.

Remember the secret flights to Jordan and how much the MSM tried on avoiding mentioning which group they were training in Jordan?

The ISIS is nothing more then an American' govs creation.

originally posted by: NthOther
I can see the US giving the Kurds millions in weaponry and training...

...only to see that same weaponry and training used against it 10 years later.

I don't have a crystal ball, but...

Seriously. Kudos to the Kurds, but haven't we learned our lesson about giving guns to people who, for the most part, hate our guts? This talk of "aid and support" is disappointingly ignorant of historical context.

In other words, we've tried that. It bites us in the ass every time. ISIS was created, in part, as a result of the same policy regarding the Syrian rebels.

The irony...

The difference is though, that the Kurds have been an ally for well over a decade. They don't hate the west, they very much welcome it, and the USA in particular. The only reason why the USA has been reluctant to provide funding and weaponry to the Kurds, is because they fear that doing so could lead to a possible partition of Iraq, which may have a domino effect on the other Kurdish populations of Turkey, Iran and Syria.

If there is anyone in the region which can be trusted with funding though, it is the Kurds. They very much respect the West, and their semi-autonomous state inside of Iraq has been very stable as of late.

originally posted by: daaskapital

The difference is though, that the Kurds have been an ally for well over a decade. They don't hate the west, they very much welcome it, and the USA in particular. The only reason why the USA has been reluctant to provide funding and weaponry to the Kurds, is because they fear that doing so could lead to a possible partition of Iraq, which may have a domino effect on the other Kurdish populations of Turkey, Iran and Syria.

If there is anyone in the region which can be trusted with funding though, it is the Kurds. They very much respect the West, and their semi-autonomous state inside of Iraq has been very stable as of late.

We have lots of former allies.

That aside, it isn't just the Kurds we need to be concerned with.

Where does all that "support" go when the Kurds are defeated, radicalized, or otherwise compromised in some way? Someone invariably ends up with it. We're just dumping fuel on the fire, it seems.

The Kurdish people aren't going anywhere...they've been fighting to stay right where they are for ever....
They a a brave and wonderful people who have gotten the #ty end of the stick too many times already.....
Of anyone over there I would consider taking up arms in their defense from the ISIS psychos....
With US airpower (and I mean lots of it on call) they could be capable of setting ISIS back a long ways.....
The southern Shia peoples outnumber the ISIS fighters by a wide margine.....80% Shia in Iraq....
I believe when they too get off their asses and tackle ISIS, the rebels will be decimated fairly quickly.....

a reply to: daaskapital
When the proud Kurds broke the siege at Mount Sinjar, and rescued those thousands of Yazidis peoples, now those people are Refugees( mr. Reid & Mrs. Pelosi ) and I Would Welcome them to come to America as Refugees and be giving the Safety and Care they deserve, the same with the Proud Kurdish People, But I know they have been Fighting and Dying for their Right to call that Land their Own For Many, Many Years.