100s of Yazidi women held captive by Islamic State group militants

[lostinblue 1,989]

100s of Yazidi women held captive by Islamic State group militants

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by Sunni militants with "vicious plans," an Iraqi official said Friday, further underscoring the dire plight of Iraq's minorities at the hands of the Islamic State group.

Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, said hundreds of Yazidi women below the age of 35 are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families.

"We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them," Amin told The Associated Press. "We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values."

The U.S. has confirmed that the Islamic State group has kidnapped and imprisoned Yazidi women so that they can be sold or married off to extremist fighters, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information came from classified intelligence reports. There was no solid estimate of the number of women victimized, the official said.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

The extremist group's capture of a string of towns and villages in the north has sent minority communities fleeing for their lives. The Islamic state views Yazidis and Shiite Muslims as apostates, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax.

About 50,000 Yazidis — half of them children, according to U.N. figures — fled to the mountains outside Sinjar where many of them remain, trapped and running out of food and water. Late Thursday, the U.S. military cargo jets dropped humanitarian aid to the mountains.

Amin's comments were the first Iraqi government confirmation that some women were being held by the group. On Tuesday, Yazidi lawmaker Vian Dakheel made an emotional plea in parliament to the Iraqi government to save the Yazidi people, saying the "women have been sold in a slavery market."

President Barack Obama said the humanitarian airdrops were made at the request of the Iraqi government as the Islamic State militant group tightened its grip on northern Iraq. In his remarks late Thursday, he mentioned "chilling reports" of fighters with the group "rounding up families, conducting mass executions, and enslaving Yazidi women."

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement Friday condemning targeted attacks against Iraq's minorities, adding that any widespread attacks against civilian populations based on ethnic, religious or political background may be considered a crime against humanity for which those responsible must be held accountable.

____

Associated Press reporter Vivian Salama in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Islamic slave trade Seems more common in the Islamic world than we are led to believe.

[eieio 1,594]

How much is a good Yazidi woman selling for these days?

This is just another way that Islam celebrates peace.

[lostinblue 1,989]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNoP-tQ5mCw

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Why do you always feel the need to add inflammatory editorial to these things?

[Boiler 46,297]

How much is a good Yazidi woman selling for these days?

This is just another way that Islam celebrates peace.

Check ebay.islam for current prices.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Will this be enough to help them?

www.cnn.com/2014/08/07/world/iraq-options/index.html

Washington (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that he's authorized "targeted airstrikes" in Iraq to protect American personnel and help Iraqi forces.

"We do whatever is necessary to protect our people," Obama said. "We support our allies when they're in danger."

A key concern for U.S. officials: dozens of American consular staff and military advisers working with the Iraqi military in Irbil, the largest city in Iraq's Kurdish region.

Obama said Thursday he'd directed the military to take targeted strikes against Islamist militants "should they move towards the city."

Rapid developments on the ground, where a humanitarian crisis is emerging with minority groups facing possible slaughter by Sunni Muslim extremists, have set the stage for an increasingly dire situation.

Thousands of families from the Yazidi minority are reportedly trapped in the mountains without food, water or medical care after fleeing the rampaging fighters of the Islamic State, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.

Throngs of refugees, many of them Iraqi Christians, are on the run -- their largest city, Qaraqosh, now occupied by fighters who gave them an ultimatum, "Convert to Islam or die."

Obama also said he'd authorized targeted airstrikes "if necessary" to help Iraqi forces protect civilians trapped on the mountain.

"When we face a situation like we do on that mountain with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale, when we have a mandate to help, in this case a request from the Iraqi government, and when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I believe the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye," Obama said. "We can act, carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide."

The potential escalation of U.S. military involvement comes two years after Obama ended the Iraq war and brought home American forces.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The U.S. destroying artillery given by the U.S. to ‘freedom fighting rebels’ attempting to overthrow oppressive regimes only to have those same ‘rebels’ now themselves becoming ‘obsessively oppressive’?

Perhaps a few A-10 Warthogs are now needed ( 4,200 rounds per minute)

[Boiler 46,297]

It is tokenistic, at best.

[lostinblue 1,989]

It is tokenistic, at best.

Obama is scheduled to make remarks at the White House at 10:25 a.m. before he leaves for vacation in Massachusetts.

U.S. military jets launched several airstrikes Friday on isolated targets, including two mortar positions and a vehicle convoy. U.S. officials announced Friday night the second airdrop of food and water in as many days for the imperiled refugees.http://www.newser.com/article/79e3de0e480f43258cddad296815148d/obama-to-make-statement-on-situation-in-iraq-before-leaving-washington-for-summer-vacation.html

Looks like that is all the support we can give right now. Cutbacks and such....

I read killary will be just down the road from the kenyan while he is on vacation....You think they will discuss this situation or will it be only about the next presidential election run ?

[JohnR! 5,495]

The U.S. destroying artillery given by the U.S. to freedom fighting rebels attempting to overthrow oppressive regimes only to have those same rebels now themselves becoming obsessively oppressive?

Perhaps a few A-10 Warthogs are now needed ( 4,200 rounds per minute)

You can't undo the past so the only option is to deal with the present. We are reaping what we sowed in Iraq.

[Boiler 46,297]

Perhaps the Yazidi's could organise a few fund raisers?

[lostinblue 1,989]

Perhaps the Yazidi's could organise a few fund raisers?

The kenyan could even do a flyover... The family dog gets his own aircraft at times .... He can afford to do a flyover... Show his support.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Obama is scheduled to make remarks at the White House at 10:25 a.m. before he leaves for vacation in Massachusetts.

U.S. military jets launched several airstrikes Friday on isolated targets, including two mortar positions and a vehicle convoy. U.S. officials announced Friday night the second airdrop of food and water in as many days for the imperiled refugees.http://www.newser.com/article/79e3de0e480f43258cddad296815148d/obama-to-make-statement-on-situation-in-iraq-before-leaving-washington-for-summer-vacation.html

Looks like that is all the support we can give right now. Cutbacks and such....

I read killary will be just down the road from the kenyan while he is on vacation....You think they will discuss this situation or will it be only about the next presidential election run ?

What more can he do? They (ISIS) know we have a percentage of the population here biting at the chomp to have a big waa-waa party for any collateral damage so best to let the greater carnage take place and not be part of it.. Besides the UN issued a somewhat harshly worded STATEMENT so you know action is imminent on that front.

So seriously.. We went in for the wrong reason.. Guess we got out when we did for the wrong reason as well.

Edited August 9, 2014 by OnMyWayID

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Going to war in iraq was a mistake.

[Boiler 46,297]

Going to war in Iraq was a mistake.

Did you say that because Obama is black?