- Jihadist troops bolster forces further south in apparent bid to broaden front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters
- Expert tells MailOnline: 'IS is coming under pressure and they need to show results to fuel their media machine'
- Comes after air strikes and Kurdish forces helped to break siege of Mount Sinjar that allowed 45,000 Yazidis to flee
- U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel said mission to rescue others stranded on mountain was now 'far less likely'
- UN declares highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis as number of displaced Iraqis tops 1.5million
Fears are growing for the 300 Yazidi women reportedly kidnapped by Islamic State fighters last week amid claims they would be used to bear children to break up the ancient sect's bloodline.
The
minority group is originally Aryan and has retained a fairer
complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes by only marrying within the
community.
But in a furious bid to convert all non-Muslims, ISIS jihadists have vowed to impregnate the hostages.
Some 45,000 Yazidi refugees have finally
been able to escape from Mount Sinjar after U.S. air strikes and a
fightback by Kurdish forces appeared to have broken the ten-day siege by
Islamic militants.
However,
as the women remain trapped, Kurdish militia are calling on Western
forces to give them arms rather than plotting rescue missions.
Addressing the kidnapping, Adnan Kochar, chairman of the Kurdish Cultural Centre in
London, told MailOnline: 'The Kurds and Yazidis are originally Aryans. But
because the Yazidis are such a closed community they have retained a
fairer complexion, blonder hair and bluer eyes. They don't marry
non-Yazidis.
In hiding: Members of the Yazidi community take
shelter on Mount Sinjar after fleeing Islamic State militants who
stormed their town ten days ago
Crisis downgraded: A mission to evacuate the
Iraqi civilians trapped on the mountain was shelved after it was found
that only a few thousand Yazidis remained there
Defiant: Some Yazidis have indicated to American
forces tasked with rescuing them that they see the mountain as a safe
haven and were reluctant to leave
Hostile terrain: Yazidis settle in abandoned houses as they take shelter on the top of Mount Sinjar after fleeing the jihadists
'ISIS have
taken around 300 women from Sinjar to give to jihadists to marry and
make pregnant to have a Muslim child. If they can't kill all Yazidis,
they will try to smash the blond bloodline.'
According
to reports, a small band of Iraqis stranded on the barren mountain top
are apparently either too scared or too proud to come down.
U.S. officials claim some Yazidis have indicated to American
forces tasked with rescuing them that they see the mountain as a safe haven and were reluctant to
leave.
The Yazidis
adhere to a 4,000-year-old faith passed down and adapted through the
generations by word of mouth and composed of elements of several
religions.
But they are unjustly
regarded as 'devil worshippers' on account of their unusual beliefs, which derive from the ancient faith called Zoroastrianism,
the religion of Persia long before Islam arrived.
Successive waves of persecution - they claim to have survived 72
genocides - by the Ottoman Turkish rulers of what is now Iraq, by Saddam
Hussein and now by Islamic militants, have reduced the number of Yazidi
from millions to an estimated 700,000.
Mr Kochar, who was born in Kurdistan,
said his great-grandfather was once a Yazidi, but was forced to convert
to Islam during an uprising 150 years ago.
His organisation is collecting aid to send to the Yazidi community.
Mr Kochar's comments came as Islamic State
militants began massing near an Iraqi town 70 miles north of Baghdad in
an apparent bid to broaden their front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters,
security sources and a local official said.
Intense: A girl from the minority Yazidi sect
rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province
after fleeing Islamic State militants
On the run: A displaced Yazidi family waits for
food and water while resting at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in
Fishkhabour in Dohuk province
Jihadist forces have made a dramatic push
through the north to a position near Erbil, the capital of the
semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
The
movement around Qara Tappa suggests they are seeking to grab more
territory closer to the capital despite being pounded by air strikes
further north at Mount Sinjar.
The
ten-day stand-off at the mountain by IS appears to have been crushed
after U.S. bomb drops and a fightback by Kurdish forces allowed nearly
45,000
refugees to escape.
But the
swelling number of displaced Iraqis has forced the United Nations to
declare its highest level of emergency to tackle the humanitarian
crisis.
An unnamed security source said Islamic militants were now gathering near Qara Tappa, adding: 'It
seems they are going to broaden their front with the Kurdish fighters.'
Living in fear: Iraqis from the Yazidi community
settle at a building under construction in Dahuk, 260 miles northwest
of Baghdad, after fleeing Islamic militants at Sinjar
Bleak: Thousands of Yazidis have been able to
escape Mount Sinjar after a ten-day siege by the Islamic State was
broken by U.S. air strikes and Kurdish forces
Yazidi refugees desperately grab juice drink
cartons as they are thrown. A ten-day stand-off at the mountain by IS
appears to have been crushed after U.S. bomb drops and a fightback by
Kurdish forces allowed nearly 45,000 refugees to escape
British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday
revealed Britain had been working on 'detailed plans' to airlift up to
30,000 desperate Yazidis from the mountain
The declaration of a 'Level 3 Emergency' will
trigger additional goods, funds and assets to help the displaced, said
special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to the 'scale and
complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe'
Andreas
Krieg, a Middle East security analyst at King's College London in
Qatar, said it was likely IS would now focus its resources further south
after losing momentum in the north between Mosul and Erbil.
He
told MailOnline: 'It seems that IS has come to a standstill on the
Northern Front with peshmerga forces regrouping and the U.S.
sporadically eliminating convoys.
'The massing of troops in Qara Tappa,
if confirmed, could be a diversionary move by IS to push against pershmerga forces further south.
'IS
is coming under pressure and they need to show results to fuel their
media machine. They certainly want to take over Kurdistan.
'But that is more wishful thinking than reality. The West will not allow Kurdistan to fall.
'Nonetheless, IS could make some advances in the South, which for them would be fair enough.'
Humble: A child lies in a makeshift cot in a
refugee camp at Silopi district after the family attacks by ISIS
militants in the Sinjar region
A mother tries to cool her tiny baby down in the shade of a van as she fans him in the midday heat
A U.S.
special forces team which flew over the mountain found that only around
5,000 Iraqi refugees remained, tens of thousands fewer than previously
thought.
Some Yazidis even indicated to American
forces that they saw the mountain as a safe haven and were reluctant to
leave, it was reported by the New York Times.
U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel said it was now 'far less likely' America would undertake a rescue mission.
Desperate for a new life: Yazidis hold banners
pleading to leave the country for good during a demonstration in
Fishkhabour, Dohuk province
Up in arms: Yazidis demanded protection and evacuation from Iraq to safer areas such as Europe and the United States
The declaration of a 'Level 3
Emergency' will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to help the
displaced, said special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to
the 'scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe'.
Mr
Hagel said air drops of food and water had sustained the refugees and
air strikes on Islamic State (IS) group militants had allowed many to
escape.
British Prime
Minister David Cameron yesterday revealed Britain had been working on
'detailed plans' to airlift up to 30,000 desperate Yazidis from the
mountain.
But Government sources told MailOnline that the number of people left stranded was now in the 'low thousands'.
Britain
will now concentrate on getting vital supplies like water and food to
up to a million Iraqis that have been driven from their homes.
Despair: A Yazidi family mourns the death of a
40-year-old relative who died from ill health while walking from Sinjar
mountains to the border crossing
Yazidis take refuge among the rubbish at the
Fishkhabour border crossing. Some 1.5m Iraqis have been displaced by the
fighting since the Islamic State uprising in June
It
was confirmed last night that SAS and SBS troops are already on the
ground, supported by specialist signals and reconnaissance forces.
Since
June, Iraq has been facing an onslaught by the Islamic State group and
allied Sunni militants across much of the country's north and west.
In recent weeks, the crisis has
worsened as the militant fighters swept through new towns in the north,
displacing members of the minority Christian and Yazidi religious
communities and threatening the neighbouring Iraqi Kurdish autonomy
zone.
Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled the advance to take refuge in the remote desert Sinjar mountain range.
The
U.S. and Iraqi military have dropped food and water supplies and in
recent days Kurds from neighbouring Syria battled to open a corridor to
the mountain, allowing some 45,000 to escape.
The
UN said it would provide increased support to those who escaped Sinjar
and to 400,000 other Iraqis who have fled since June to the Kurdish
province of Dahuk.
Others have fled to other parts of the Kurdish region or further south.
Forced into nomadic lifestyles: A graphic
showing the movement of displaced Iraqis, in large part as a result of
the Islamic State uprising
Exhausted: Other Yazidis have fled to refugee
camps like this one in Silopi district, in Sirnak, Turkey after trekking
for hundreds of kilometres to safety
Refugee: The swelling number of displaced Iraqis
has forced the United Nations to declare its highest level of emergency
to tackle the humanitarian crisis
Humanitarian response: An RAF C-130 transport
plane lands in heavy fog in Akrotiri, Cyprus, before being deployed to
carry out aid drops to stranded Yazidis
A GLOBAL RESPONSE: WHO'S DOING WHAT?
UK
David
Cameron has reigned back plans to airlift Yazidis off Mount Sinjar, but
will continue to drop aid to the remaining Yazidis stranded there.
The Prime Minister said armed forces assets were in place to 'help out in the right way' if the situation demanded it.
US
US
American
forces conducted a seventh airdrop of food and water for those
remaining on the mountain, bringing the total aid delivered in
co-ordination with the Iraqi government to more than 114,000 meals and
35,000 gallons of drinking water.
Washington has already said it will ship weapons to the Kurds to help them fight back against the jihadists.
EU
The European Union is looking into how it could tighten sanctions to stop Islamic State militants from selling oil from fields they have overrun in Syria.
EU
The European Union is looking into how it could tighten sanctions to stop Islamic State militants from selling oil from fields they have overrun in Syria.
The issue could
come up at an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers called for
tomorrow to discuss the humanitarian and security crisis in Iraq.
The EU will increase aid to Iraq to £13.6million.
UN
UN
Declared
the situation in Iraq a 'Level 3 Emergency' - a development that will
trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of
the displaced
France
France
France is supplying arms in response to a request from Iraq's Kurdish leadership, President Francois Hollande's office said.
France
has dropped water, tents and medicine to Yazidis sheltering on the
mountain amid fears of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.
Australia
Australia
Sending two C-130 Hercules transport planes for humanitarian aid drops to begin within two or three days
A total of 1.5 million have been
displaced by the fighting since the insurgents captured Iraq's
second-largest city, Mosul, in June and quickly swept over other parts
of the country.
The United
States has been carrying out air strikes in recent days against Islamic
State fighters, helping fend back their advance on Kurdish regions.
At
the same time, Iraq's central government in Baghdad has been mired in
political turmoil, after the president nominated a Shi'ite politician,
Haider Abadi, to form the next government, putting him on track to
replace embattled prime minister Nouri Maliki.
Mr
Maliki said yesterday he would not relinquish power until a federal
court ruled on what he called a 'constitutional violation' by President
Fouad Massoum.
'Holding on
(to the premiership) is an ethical and patriotic duty to defend the
rights of voters,'he said in his weekly address to the nation, insisting
his actions were meant to 'protect the state'.
Mr Maliki has grown increasingly
isolated, with Iraqi politicians and much of the international community
lining up behind Mr Abadi.
Mr
Abadi was picked to form a new government that can unite the country in
the face of the Sunni militant onslaught, which many say Mr Maliki
fuelled by initiating pro-Shi'ite policies that alienated the Sunni
minority.
Widespread
discontent with Mr Maliki's rule has reached the point where both Saudi
Arabia and Iran - regional rivals often bitterly divided over Iraq -
have expressed support for Mr Abadi.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have also offered support for new leadership.
In
Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed hope that 'a
government will be formed so that they (Iraqis) can give the necessary
and appropriate response to the sedition-makers'.
Qatar's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it hoped Mr Abadi would establish 'a
comprehensive national government that includes all components of the
Iraqi people'.
The UN
Security Council said it was encouraged by President Massoum's decision
to nominate a new prime minister-designate and urged Mr Abadi to work
swiftly to form 'an inclusive government that represents all segments of
the Iraqi population and that contributes to finding a viable and
sustainable solution to the country's current challenges'.
Iraqi troops imposed heightened security in Baghdad on Wednesday.
Tanks
and Humvees were positioned on Baghdad bridges and at major
intersections, with security personnel more visible than usual as about
100 Maliki supporters rallied at Firdous Square.
At
a meeting between Mr Maliki and senior military commanders broadcast on
state television, the incumbent premier warned that security forces
should not get involved in politics.
He
also raised the spectre of further unrest by saying Sunni militants or
Shiite militiamen might don military uniforms and try to take control of
the streets and 'make things worse'.
Meanwhile attacks in and near Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded scores more yesterday. 
A graphic showing the plans that were put in
place to rescue thousands of Yazidis trapped in Iraq. This appears to
have been called off after the number of those trapped was far fewer
than previously thought
Scattered: A graphic showing the various escape
routes the Yazidis have taken, often through hundreds of kilometres of
desert terrain, after being attacked by ISIS
A car bomb in eastern New
Baghdad killed eight while six people, including four police officers,
died when a car bomb struck a checkpoint in western Baghdad.
A
bomb at a central market killed five people while two died in a bombing
in the commercial Karrada district. A car bomb in the Baiyaa
neighborhood killed four and four more died in a mortar attack north of
the capital.
The European
Union's 28 foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Iraq
tomorrow to co-ordinate their stance on military support for the Kurds
and providing humanitarian assistance for those fleeing the fighting.
The
EU currently has an arms embargo on Iraq but it provides loopholes for
equipment sold or transferred to the Iraqi military or international
forces in Iraq.
Sending
arms directly to the Kurdish forces without going through Baghdad,
however, could be seen as a violation of the embargo - thus the need for
a decision by the EU ministers.
PERSECUTED FOR THEIR UNUSUAL BELIEFS AND FAIRER COMPLEXION: ANCIENT YAZIDI SECT CLAIMS TO HAVE SURVIVED 72 GENOCIDES IN THEIR 4000-YEAR HISTORY BECAUSE THEY ARE REGARDED AS 'DEVIL WORSHIPPERS'
Unjustly
regarded as 'devil worshippers' on account of their unusual beliefs,
the Yazidi have for centuries been one of the most persecuted minorities
of the Middle East.
Islamic extremists regard them as infidels, worthy only of being killed.
They are an ethnic Kurdish people who tend to have fairer complexions than many in the Middle East.
They
regard wearing blue as sacrilege, they never eat cabbage or lettuce
because it creates wind and their men often have long beards and wear
their hair in plaits – which make them resemble the cartoon characters
of ancient Gaul, Asterix and Obelix.
They
adhere to a 4,000-year-old faith passed down and adapted through the
generations by word of mouth and composed of elements of several
religions.
Fairer complexions: An Iraqi girl from the
Yazidi community shelters at a refugee camp near the Turkey-Iraq border
at Silopi in Sirnak
Their reverence
for fire and light derives from the ancient faith called Zoroastrianism,
the religion of Persia long before Islam arrived.
They
combine such Christian practices as baptism with Jewish or Islamic
circumcision. Like Buddhists they believe in perpetual reincarnation.
But it is the central tenet of their religion that has led others to brand them devil worshippers.
They believe in one God who illuminated seven angels with his light.
The
greatest of the seven is the Peacock Angel, known as Malak Taus, who is
dressed in blue (which is why the Yazidi refuse to wear the colour).
His other name is Shaytan, Arabic for the devil or Satan.
The Yazidi believe that God left the Earth in the care of the seven angels and told them to obey Adam.
The Peacock Angel refused, stating that Adam was created from the soil, and God’s light could never be at the mercy of the soil.
He
was cast out for his disobedience, but was quickly reconciled with God
who respected his argument – which proved he was, in fact, the most
loyal angel of all.
Safe at last: At least 20,000 civilians, most of
them Yazidis, who had been besieged by jihadists on a mountain in
northern Iraq have escaped to Syria
This is why the idea that he was akin to Lucifer is so misleading.
Tragically, the Yazidi are also victims of another misunderstanding, over their name.
Sunni extremists believe it derives from a deeply unpopular seventh century caliph – or leader – Yazid ibn Muawiya.
In fact, it comes from the Persian word for angel or deity, 'Ized'. Their name simply means ‘worshippers of God’.
Yet
no such theological distinction interests Islamic State fighters in a
Middle East where minor divergences between Sunni and Shia Muslims are a
matter of life and death, and the region's 12million Christians are
diminishing by the day.
In such a murderous atmosphere, ‘Satan worshippers’ are inevitably the targets of genocidal fanatics.
Even to ordinary Iraqis, they are seen as bogeymen to frighten children with.
The Yazidi once lived in a wide area across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia.
But
successive waves of persecution - they claim to have survived 72
genocides - by the Ottoman Turkish rulers of what is now Iraq, by Saddam
Hussein and now by Islamic militants, have reduced the number of Yazidi
from millions to an estimated 700,000.
In recent years, some 70,000 have fled to Europe, where 40,000 live in western Germany.
This
is not surprising. Since the Yazidi welcomed the US invasion of Iraq
after 2003 and admire Israel, they attracted the malevolence of Al Qaeda
and other jihadists before the Islamic State came on the scene; in 2007
massive truck bombs killed 500.
What
makes the Yazidi still more vulnerable is the insular nature of their
community. No one can convert to their religion, you have to be born
into it. They also practice endogamy – that is, they only marry members
of the same faith.
They
believe that when someone dies, their soul passes into a new member of
the community and that purification of the soul is only possible through
continual rebirth.
The worst possible fate, therefore, is to be expelled from the community because the soul can never then be purified or saved.
Equally,
anyone who voluntarily leaves the religion risks death. In 2007, it was
reported that Du’a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi woman, was stoned to death
for converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man.
Feared,
villified and slaughtered for centuries, it is in many ways remarkable
such a strong community of Yazidis still exists at all. But now, with
the Islamic State’s determination to wipe them out, they perhaps face
their greatest test of all.
MICHAEL BURLEIGH
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