The Islamic State (IS) wants to break down borders across
the Middle East and create a new caliphate, which it announced in June 2014.
Most of its attention has been on challenging the governments in Damascus and
Baghdad. In early August however it turned its attention to northern Iraq and
attacked areas under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Earlier it was able to out duel the Kurdish peshmerga in Jalawla, Diyala. Then
in August it seized several towns in northern Ninewa province including Sinjar.
This caused a response by not only the KRG, but the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its
People’s Protection Units (YPG) who sent in their militias to do battle with
the IS in cooperation with their Iraqi brethren. Baghdad even got involved
promising air support. The Islamic State was probably not expecting that its
own anti-state campaign would bring about such a regional response.
Sinjar and the surrounding towns have become a battlefield between the Islamic State and Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi Kurds along with Baghdad (NY Times)
August 4, 2014 the Islamic State launched an offensive upon
Kurdish positions in Ninewa. That day insurgents attacked
Sinjar, Zumar, and Wana forcing the peshmerga out. According to the Financial
Times the Kurdish military was only able to rally after the intervention of the
Democratic Union Party’s People’s Protection Units, which came across the
Syrian Rabia
border crossing, while the Kurdistan Workers’ Party moved
into Jabal Sinjar. Later they were able to retake
Wana, but stories of Sinjar
being liberated were premature. Unfortunately that still left the town and
its Yazidi population at the mercy of the Islamists. Immediately there were
stories of massacres and the destruction of shrines. One of
the earliest reports had 70 Yazidis executed for refusing to convert to
Islam, while two shrines were blown up at the bottom of Mount Sinjar with an
attempt on a third at the top of the hill. At the same time the U.N. estimated
that up to 200,000
people fled in panic to the hills in the wake of the militant attacks.
UNICEF believed that 25,000 of them were children, and 40 of them were said to
have died from dehydration. On a positive note, Baghdad said that it would aid
the Kurds by sending in air
strikes, which started on August 4. Yazidis have been targeted by
insurgents before, and are especially persecuted by Islamists who believe that
they are devil
worshippers. This was the first time the IS had challenged the Kurds in
such a large fashion however. Before there had been some fighting with the
peshmerga in Jalawla where the Kurds were
forced to withdraw because they ran out of ammo at the end of July. This
was a big offensive causing major displacement and hand wringing in Kurdistan.
That sense of shock surprisingly led to the mobilization of the PKK and the PYD
who had battled the IS before. That probably wasn’t what the IS thought would
happen when it sought to break down the border between Iraq and Syria this
summer. At the same time this brought out the political differences between
these Kurdish factions. Some Kurdish media sources that seemed aligned with the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) claimed that it was the Kurdistan Democratic
Party’s (KDP) peshmerga who fled in the face of the insurgents and abandoned
Sinjar only to be saved by the PKK, PYD and PUK forces. The PUK has faced deep
internal divisions over the last year while its leader Jalal Talabani was out
of the country due to health issues. Now it appears the party is trying to
score political points by attacking the KDP over Sinjar.
Yazidi refugees hiding in the mountains outside Sinjar
The Islamic State made an unexpected surge into Kurdish held
areas of Ninewa. Today the fight is still on as the Kurds of Iraq, Syria and
Turkey have mobilized for a counter attack with the support of Baghdad from the
air. The IS is a threat to the entire Middle East with its internationalist
agenda. It is very important that it has finally provoked a regional response
in this case. At the same time it is sad to see that some Iraqis still have the
time to play upon their petty rivalries during this crisis. That undermines the
apparent unity that the IS’s move has provoked. How successful this combined
force will be given their differences is yet to be seen, but it is a positive
move that can hopefully retake the lost territory and return the displaced Yazidis
to their homes.
SOURCES
Agence France Presse, “Kurds unite in bid to rescue Iraq’s
Yazidi minority,” 8/4/14
Daragahi,
Borzou, “Isis advances punctures Kurdistan self-confidence,” Financial times,
8/4/14
Independent
Press Agency, “Peshmerga regain control of the Rabia and Sinjar districts, west
of Mosul,” 8/5/14
NINA, “the Islamic State blow up two Yazidi Shrines, and
kill 70 Yazidis after refusing to convert to Islam,” 8/4/14
-
“New clashes erupted between the IS and Peshmerga inside Makhmour north of
Mosul and the displacement of tens of families towards Erbil, “8/6/14
-
“Peshmerga carry out a surprise attack on Daash elements north of Mosul and
force them to withdraw,” 8/6/14
- “Peshmerga regain control of the district of Sinjar and
Rabia and Sanoon,” 8/4/14
- “Qassim Atta- the killing and wounding of dozens of the IS
elements by airstrikes in Sinjar,” 8/4/14
Prothero,
Mitchell, “Kurds from Turkey, Syria enter Iraq to battle Islamic State,”
McClatchy Newspapers, 8/6/14
Al
Rayy, “Peshmerga control part of Mount Sinjar, west of Mosul,” 8/6/14
-
“Peshmerga progressing in Mosul neighborhoods, and news about the control of
Qayara by the Iraqi army,” 8/5/14
Rudaw, “Jihadists surrounded in Iraq’s Sinjar in intense
Kurdish Peshmerga offensive,” 8/4/14
-
“Peshmerga Hit IS in Mosul,” 8/6/14
Shafaq News, “Peshmerga clear Wana city from ISIS,” 8/4/14
Stout, David, “Be Captured and Killed, or Risk Dying of
Thirst: The Awful Choice Facing the Refugees of Sinjar,” Time, 8/6/14
Tomkiw, Lydia, “Iraq’s jihadis have vowed to wipe out the
Yazidis. Who are they?” Christian Science Monitor, 8/5/14
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