20,000 Yazidis Taken to Safety, US Launches Additional Airstrikes

Around 20,000 Yazidis, an ethnic minority in Iraq, were reported to have been rescued in northern Iraq while just as many refugees remain trapped on mountaintops surrounded by ISIS militants. Meanwhile, the U.S. military launched additional airstrikes against the Islamic State earlier on Sunday.

CNN reported that the 20,000 rescued Yazidis were moved to the Syrian border for safety, quoting a representative from Iraq’s ministry of Human Rights. Christians are also facing unprecedented levels of persecution in Iraq. A Lebanese Maronite Patriarch urged the international community that these Christians are in desperate need of refuge and protection.

The U.S. military, with the help of the United Kingdom and Turkey carried out airdrops on the Sinjar mountains where the civilians were detained. Food and water was provided for the 50,000 Yazidis that had nowhere to escape. More than half of these refugees are children who were warned that they will be killed by the militants should try to flee from the mountain.

Following the airdrops were additional airstrikes by American warplanes that targeted the regions surrounding the mountain areas where it was believed ISIS Jihadists were active. A reporter told CBC news that these attacks have restored a level of calm, since the militants had lost a great deal of heavy weaponry due to the bombing.

So far, the ISIS is believed to have killed at least 500 Yazidis. Some are even reported to have been buried alive in northern Iraq. Mohammad Shin al-Sundani was quoted in France24, who said that the Islamic militants view the Yazidis as “devil worshippers”.

"We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably that the gangs of the Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," Sudani said. "Some of the victims, including women and children were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar."

Meanwhile, Christians are also facing a great deal of persecution from the Islamic State, which warned all religious minorities to either flee, convert to Islam or be put to death. The ISIS has already occupied several towns that were originally heavily populated by Christians.