Sinjar massacre
The Sinjar massacre (Kurdish: Komkujiya Şengalê) marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, the killing and abduction of thousands[14][15][22] of Yazidi men, women and children. It took place in August 2014 in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate and was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The massacre began with ISIL attacking and capturing Sinjar and neighboring towns on 3 August, during its Northern Iraq offensive.
On 8 August 2014, the United States and the United Kingdom responded with airstrikes on ISIL units and convoys in northern Iraq, which led to a military intervention from several countries against ISIL.
On 17 December 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga, PKK and YPG forces started the December 2014 Sinjar offensive with the support of US and British airstrikes. This offensive broke ISIL's troop transport routes and supply lines between Mosul and Raqqa, the largest cities in the Islamic State at the time.
According to Noori Abdulrahman, the head of the Department of Coordination and Follow-up of the Kurdistan Regional Government, ISIL wanted to push most of the Kurds out of strategic areas and bring in Arabs who were obedient to ISIL.[23]
ISIL takeover and siege[edit]
The offensive by night[edit]
As ISIL attacked Sinjar and neighboring cities, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Sinjar withdrew, leaving the civilians behind without warning.[3] There is general agreement that the majority of the forces in Shingal on that day were affiliated with the KDP, despite wildly varying estimates as to troop levels. KDP commanders claim that there were 2,000–4,000 KDP troops in the area. Similarly, Shex Alo, the KDP frontline commander for Shingal section, claims that there were 2,000 KDP fighters in the area, along with one additional Peshmerga brigade and PUK units. Meanwhile most others, including but not limited to HPÊ commander Haydar Shesho and Senior Gorran Movement official Mustafa Saed Qadir who was the Minister of Peshmerga Affairs at the time and had some Peshmerga brigades in Shingal under his control, estimate that there were many more, around 11,000–15,000 troops stationed.[29]
The villagers defended themselves with their own weapons, but ISIL fighters shelled them with mortars. By 3 a.m., ISIL fighters had broken through, and began killing anyone seen outdoors.[3]
On the morning of 3 August 2014, ISIL forces captured the city of Sinjar[13] as well as the Sinjar area.[30] ISIL then detonated the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque in Sinjar, executed resisters, and demanded the residents to swear allegiance and to convert to Islam or be killed.[13]
Locals' exodus[edit]
In the surrounding villages, many residents fled immediately.[30] According to Yazidis, ISIL fighters asked the remaining Yazidis to convert to Islam or face death, and ISIL Twitter accounts posted images of murders in the Sinjar area.[30]
Almost 200,000 civilians, mostly Yazidis along with Shia, managed to flee from the fighting in Sinjar city.[13][31]
Sinjar mountains' siege[edit]
About 50,000 Yazidis fled into the Sinjar Mountains,[31] where they were trapped without food, water or medical care[32] and faced starvation and dehydration.[31]
The U.S. government, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and Western media reported that thousands of Yazidis in the Sinjar Mountains were under siege by ISIL.[33][34][35][36][37]
Tahseen Said, the emir of the Yazidis, issued an appeal to world leaders on 3 August 2014, asking for humanitarian help to aid those who were besieged by ISIL.[38] On 4 August, Kurdish fighters reportedly battled ISIL to retake Sinjar.[32]
Sinjar rescue operations[edit]
Kurdish PKK and YPG clearing a path for Yazidis[edit]
Between 9[60] and 11 August 2014,[61] a safe corridor was established from the mountain enabling 10,000 people to evacuate on the first day.[60] Kurdish fighters of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) entered the Sinjar Mountains with trucks and tractors to carry out the sick and elderly into Syria via a path that was cleared by Syrian Kurdish militants (YPG). According to Dr. Salim Hassan, a professor at the University of Sulaymaniyah and spokesman of the uprooted Yazidis, the PKK and YPG enabled an estimated 35,000 of the initially 50,000 trapped Yazidis to escape into Syria.[61] According to the account of the Sinjar District Governor, the route was jointly set up by Peshmerga and the YPG.[60]
Mountain siege ends, U.S. rescue mission canceled[edit]
On 12[33] or 13 August 2014, a dozen U.S. Marines and special forces servicemen landed on Mount Sinjar from CH-53E aircraft to assess options for a potential rescue of Yazidi refugees joining British SAS already in the area.[10][62] They reported that "the situation is much more manageable", that there were now far fewer Yazidis on the mountain than expected, and that those Yazidis were in relatively good condition. A U.S. rescue mission for those still on the mountain was therefore "far less likely now", said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.[33]
The U.S. government officially declared the siege to be broken on 13 August 2014. This was reportedly done by U.S airstrikes and Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units from Syria, together with their PKK allies from Turkey,[1][3] allowing more than 50,000 refugees to escape.[63][64] Despite this, according to Professor Salim Hassan, between 5,000 and 10,000 people still remained trapped in the mountains.[61] They were reportedly afraid to return to their homes and were sustained in the coming months by airdrops from a lone Iraqi helicopter.[65]
– On 13 August 2014, the United Nations declared the Yazidi crisis a highest-level "Level 3 Emergency", saying that the declaration "will facilitate mobilization of additional resources in goods, funds and assets to ensure a more effective response to the humanitarian needs of populations affected by forced displacements".[74][75] On 19 March 2015, a United Nations panel concluded that ISIL "may have committed" genocide against the Yazidis with an investigation head, Suki Nagra, stating that the attacks on the Yazidis "were not just spontaneous or happened out of the blue, they were clearly orchestrated".[76]
United Nations
– On 11 August 2014, the Arab League accused ISIL of committing crimes against humanity by persecuting the Yazidis.[77][78]
