Video Shows Yazidis 'Converting To Islam'

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <section class="story__content" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px auto 80px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 18.75rem; orphans: auto; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; widows: auto;"><header class="story__header" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><div class="story__standfirst" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-bottom: 40px; max-width: 64%;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A propaganda video shows lines of men and boys being directed by militants under the black Islamic State flag.</span></div> <div class="last-updated" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 40px; max-width: 40%; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-align: right;"> <div class="last-updated__text" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"> <span class="last-updated__time" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">10:38, UK,</span></span><span class="last-updated__day" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); box-sizing: border-box;"></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span class="last-updated__day" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thursday 21</span> <span class="last-updated__month-year" style="box-sizing: border-box;">August 2014</span></div> </div> </header><div class="story__content-outer-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; padding: 0px 332px 0px 0px; width: 992px;"> <section class="story__media" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="module module--primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; width: 660px;"> <div class="module video" data-format-high="http://video.news.sky.com/video/h264/vod/700/2014/08/210814IraqYazidisConvertionIslamicState1408613166136700.mp4" data-format-low="http://video.news.sky.com/video/h264/vod/374/2014/08/210814IraqYazidisConvertionIslamicState1408613166136374.mp4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; overflow: hidden; width: 660px;"> <div class="video__placeholder-wrapper js-video" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; height: 0px; padding-bottom: 371px; position: relative; width: 660px;"> <div class="image" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div class="image__wrapper image__wrapper--16x9" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 371px; position: relative;"> <img alt="" class="image__item video__teaser-image js-responsive" data-breakpoint="" data-sizes="144x81 362x204 762x428 942x530" data-sizes-wide="" data-template="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330701/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101812-0-1-{width}x{height}.jpg" src="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330701/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101812-0-1-942x530.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 371px; max-width: 100%; page-break-inside: avoid; position: absolute; vertical-align: middle; width: 660px;" /></div> </div> <button aria-labelledby="video__caption-1322412" class="video__play--icon" style="background-image: url(http://news.sky.com/images/ffa94923.play-icon.png); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: contain; border: none; bottom: 8px; cursor: pointer; height: 46px; left: 7px; margin: 0px; position: absolute; width: 46px;"><span class="video__play-a11y" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); display: inline-block; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute !important; text-align: left; width: 1px;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Play video</span></span></span></button></div> </div> </div> </section></div> <div class="story__intro" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="video__type" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Video:</span> <span class="video__teaser" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Militants Force Yazidis To Convert</span></span></div> <div class="story__intro" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextMedium, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.625rem;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="story__intro" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextMedium, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.625rem;">An Islamic State video has emerged purporting to show dozens of captured Yazidi people converting to Islam.</span></span></div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: SkyTextMedium, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-weight: 700;"><a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1322190/foley-secret-us-raid-failed-to-free-journalist" style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 203, 203); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3157a1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">The footage emerged shortly after the group released a video showing one of its black-clad fighters beheading American journalist James Foley.</a></strong></div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> The latest film, titled "Hundreds of Yazidis convert to Islam", gives no indication of the bloodshed that prompted tens of thousands of people to flee.</div> <div class="image image--inline" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> <div class="image__wrapper image__wrapper--4x3" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 405px; position: relative;"> <img alt="" class="image__item js-responsive" data-breakpoint="" data-sizes="91x68 300x225 480x360" data-sizes-wide="" data-template="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330698/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101805-0-1-{width}x{height}.jpg" src="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330698/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101805-0-1-480x360.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 405px; max-width: 100%; page-break-inside: avoid; position: absolute; vertical-align: middle; width: 540px;" /></div> <div class="image__caption" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; min-height: 40px; padding: 10px 8px;"> The video shows men asking questions to Islamic State fighters</div> </div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> In the video, two Islamic State fighters field questions in Arabic. One of the fighters is a bearded middle-aged man dressed in black with an AK-47 assault rifle.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> The other is dressed in a crisp grey military uniform and camouflage cap.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> "What has been said is the opposite of reality," the older man says.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> He also says that Islamic State has provided the Yazidis with everything they need.</div> <div class="image image--inline" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> <div class="image__wrapper image__wrapper--4x3" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 405px; position: relative;"> <img alt="" class="image__item js-responsive" data-breakpoint="" data-sizes="91x68 300x225 480x360" data-sizes-wide="" data-template="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330699/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101841-0-1-{width}x{height}.jpg" src="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/21/330699/default/v2/cegrab-20140821-101841-0-1-480x360.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 405px; max-width: 100%; page-break-inside: avoid; position: absolute; vertical-align: middle; width: 540px;" /></div> <div class="image__caption" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; min-height: 40px; padding: 10px 8px;"> The men get off a bus and greet militants</div> </div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> "Men, women and children have converted and I was with them and they are happy with their conversions," he says.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> He adds: "We advise the Yazidis to come down from the mountain and convert."</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> This is a reference to Mount Sinjar, where thousands who feared death at the hands of the militants took refuge.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> "If they stay on the mountain, they will die of starvation and thirst. This talk about aid from Western and crusader countries is all lies.</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> "If they convert, we will give them everything they need. They will live a happy life."</div> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: SkyTextRegular, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana; font-size: 1.125rem; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.625rem; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 540px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> The video then shows dozens of Yazidis getting off a bus, walking past a truck mounted with an anti-aircraft weapon and hugging Islamic State militants.</div> </section></div>

Video Shows Yazidis 'Converting To Islam'

A propaganda video shows lines of men and boys being directed by militants under the black Islamic State flag. 10:38, UK, Thursday 2...

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One villager's 'No' when asked to convert triggered mass killings of Yazidis in Iraqi village

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;" x-created-in="cc"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One villager's 'No' when asked to convert triggered mass killings of Yazidis in Iraqi village: Survivor of the massacre tells how they were driven away on buses before Isis opened fire on them</span></span></h1> <div class="author-section" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Islamic State militants stormed into a northern Iraqi village and ordered everyone to convert to Islam or die only one person refused. But that did not satisfy the Sunni insurgents who are even more hardline than al Qaeda.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The militants, who have seized much of northern Iraq since arriving from Syria in June, wasted no time after the village's leader, or sheikh, stood up for his ancient Yazidi faith.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Khalof Khodede, an unemployed father of three who escaped with his life, recalled how 80 men in the village of Kocho were killed and all the women and girls were kidnapped.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="clear: both; margin: 0px auto 4px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather under a bridge where they found refuge after Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the town of Sinjar" class="blkBorder img-share" height="423" id="i-28f079b2a0459dbd" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/20/1408501072558_wps_1_Displaced_Iraqis_from_the.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span></div> <div class="imageCaption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(167, 169, 171); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; clear: both; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 4px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather under a bridge where they found refuge after Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the town of Sinjar</span></div> <div class="imageCaption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(167, 169, 171); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; clear: both; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 0px; padding: 4px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His account, one of the first eyewitness reports of last Friday's killings, could not be independently verified but other Yazidis and Iraqi officials have given details of Islamic State's attack on the village.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'First they wanted us all to convert to Islam and we said yes just to save our lives. We were all very afraid,' said Khodede from a hospital bed in the town of Dohuk in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dohuk is now home to thousands of refugees from Iraq's minority Yazidi community which has paid the heaviest price for Islamic State's ambition to redraw the map of the Middle East.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Then our sheikh said 'I won't convert to Islam'. And then they gathered us inside the village school,' he said.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The men were taken to the first floor and the women to the second after the villagers' money and gold jewellery were seized, probably to fund the group made up of Iraqis and other Arabs as well as foreign fighters.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then the Yazidis were loaded onto minibuses in groups of 10 to 20 and transported outside the village after being told they would be taken to Sinjar, the ancient homeland of the sect.</span></div> <div class="moduleFull mol-video" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a class="namedLink" href="" name="video" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></a></span><div class="item" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <div id="v-3702378963001" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;"> <div class="videoplayer-large" style="height: 358px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 636px;"> <a href="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><div class="videoplayer-title-bg" style="box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 0px 3px 5px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 636px;"> </div> <div class="videoplayer-title" style="left: 6px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 4px;"> Archive: Shocking video shows mass execution in Iraq by ISIS</div> <div class="btnBg" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 2px 2px 3px; height: 85px; left: 275.5px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 140px; width: 85px;"> </div> <span class="playbtn" style="border-color: transparent transparent transparent rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: dashed dashed dashed solid; border-width: 0.53em 0.53em 0.53em 1em; display: inline-block; height: 0px; left: 289.5px; position: absolute; right: 0.25em; top: 151.5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 0px;"></span><center style="text-align: left;"> <img class="plcHlder" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/07/29/video-undefined-2017A9BC00000578-32_636x358.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 358px; margin: 0px; max-width: 636px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;" /></center> </a></div> <div class="news" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="wocc videoplayer-keyline" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; height: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Iraqi clerics from the Yazidi religious minority sit at Yazidi holy Lalish temple situated in a valley in the Shikhan Mountains, in Kurdistan's western Dohuk province" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="2" height="423" id="i-4e76ce74eb620d40" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/20/1408501138353_wps_3_Iraqi_clerics_from_the_Ya.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+4</span></span></div> </div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Iraqi clerics from the Yazidi religious minority sit at Yazidi holy Lalish temple situated in a valley in the Shikhan Mountains, in Kurdistan's western Dohuk province</span></div> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="mol-img" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="An Iraqi Yazidi girl holds a baby under a bridge where displaced people of this religious minority found refuge after Islamic State militants attacked the town of Sinjar" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="3" height="423" id="i-1d2dcaa69594a901" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/20/1408501172281_wps_4_An_Iraqi_Yazidi_girl_hold.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+4</span></span></div> </div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An Iraqi Yazidi girl holds a baby under a bridge where displaced people of this religious minority found refuge after Islamic State militants attacked the town of Sinjar</span></div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The vehicles stopped abruptly and the militants opened fire without warning. 'They started shooting at us randomly. They had heavy guns like machine guns. I was hit in my leg and on my pelvis,' said Khodede, showing where he had been wounded.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism who are part of Iraq's Kurdish community, are not strangers to oppression. </span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But nothing could have prepared them for the wrath of the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria it controls.</span></div> <div class="mol-article-quote floatRHS" style="background-image: url(http://i.mol.im/i/furniture/articles/opening_double_quotes.png); background-position: 0px 6px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(227, 227, 227); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: right; float: right; margin: 16px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; width: 308px;"> <div class="mol-article-quote-wrapper" style="background-image: url(http://i.mol.im/i/furniture/articles/closing_double_quotes.png); background-position: 100% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 10px 23px 6px;"> <div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State kidnapped about 400 to 600 people in our village and the majority of those people are women and children. They killed most of the men </span></div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To survive, Khodede had to hide under the dead bodies of friends and neighbours, people who had practised the mysterious Yazidi faith with for a lifetime - beliefs that Islamic State fighters condemn as 'devil worship'.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After trying to stay motionless for about an hour, Khodede saw Kurdish fighters in the distance, peering through gaps in the bodies.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They were not Iraqi Kurdish fighters who had held towns and villages in the north for years after the fall of Saddam in 2003.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Kurdish fighters had come from Syria after hearing that fellow Kurds were being routed in neighbouring Iraq by Islamic State militants who seized several towns, a fifth oilfield, as well as the country's dam for some time in recent weeks.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Like many Yazidis, Khodede felt abandoned by the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters who acquired a reputation for being fierce warriors mainly because they challenged Saddam's troops.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Syrian Kurdish fighters cleaned up his wounds, took him to a hospital in Syria and then brought him back to Iraq.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Others were not so lucky.</span></div> <div class="moduleFull mol-video" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="item" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <div id="v-3731585884001" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;"> <div class="videoplayer-large" style="height: 358px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 636px;"> <a href="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><div class="videoplayer-title-bg" style="box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 0px 3px 5px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 636px;"> </div> <div class="videoplayer-title" style="left: 6px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 4px;"> Yazidi young and old flee IS, seeking refuge in Erbil</div> <div class="btnBg" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 2px 2px 3px; height: 85px; left: 275.5px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 140px; width: 85px;"> </div> <span class="playbtn" style="border-color: transparent transparent transparent rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: dashed dashed dashed solid; border-width: 0.53em 0.53em 0.53em 1em; display: inline-block; height: 0px; left: 289.5px; position: absolute; right: 0.25em; top: 151.5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 0px;"></span><center style="text-align: left;"> <img class="plcHlder" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/15/video-undefined-208C0E8F00000578-910_636x358.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 358px; margin: 0px; max-width: 636px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;" /></center> </a></div> <div class="news" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="wocc videoplayer-keyline" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; height: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">'Islamic State kidnapped about 400 to 600 people in our village and the majority of those people are women and children. They killed most of the men,' said Khodede, in the emergency room of a teaching hospital where he arrived on Monday night.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His uncle and sister are by his side as blood drips into a bag hanging from his bed.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the chaos and panic after the latest Islamic State offensive, rumours swirled about the fate of kidnapped Yazidi women, usually referred to as 'slaves' for Islamic State.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some Yazidis believe Islamic State holds hundreds of people at a detention centre near the town of Tal Afar.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Khodede wonders if his family is there. His three children, wife and mother were taken away along with hundreds of others just because the village sheikh was defiant.</span></div> <div class="mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> </div> </div>

One villager's 'No' when asked to convert triggered mass killings of Yazidis in Iraqi village

One villager's 'No' when asked to convert triggered mass killings of Yazidis in Iraqi village: Survivor of the massacre tells ...

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Yazidis haunted by cries for help as militants bury victims alive

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="relatedPhoto landscape" id="articleImage" style="clear: left !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; width: 580px;"> <img alt="Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the Iraqi-Turkish border crossing in Zakho district of the Dohuk Governorate of the Iraqi Kurdistan province August 17, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal" border="0" src="http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140818&t=2&i=965018306&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEA7H0TD" style="display: block; width: 580px;" /><div class="rolloverCaption" id="captionContent" style="bottom: 0px; clear: both; float: left; left: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: -10px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 590px; z-index: 2;"> <div class="rolloverBg" style="background-image: none; clear: both; float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; width: 610px !important;"> <div class="captionText" style="height: 60px; padding: 10px; position: relative;"> <div style="padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the Iraqi-Turkish border crossing in Zakho district of the Dohuk Governorate of the Iraqi Kurdistan province August 17, 2014.</span></div> <div class="credit" style="margin-top: 5px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CREDIT: REUTERS/YOUSSEF BOUDLAL</span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="relatedRai" id="relatedInlineVideo"> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> <div class="module" id="relatedTopics" style="float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 140px;"> <div class="moduleHeader" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: medium none; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <h3 style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">RELATED TOPICS</span></span></h3> </div> <div class="moduleBody" style="float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <ul style="clear: both; float: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/news/world" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">World »</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> <div id="thirdPartyLinkbackNews"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" id="relatedInteractive" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(Reuters) - Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can't focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tens of thousand of Yazidis fled their ancient homeland of Sinjar and other villages to escape a dramatic push by the Sunni militants who regard the ethnic minority as devil worshippers who must embrace their radical version of Islam or die.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The refugees sit idle in camps in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iraq?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a></span>.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Traumatized by Islamic State militants notorious for beheadings and mass executions, they have simply given up on Iraq and want to go as far away as possible; to countries like<span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/germany?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Germany</a></span>, worlds away from their mysterious customs.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">U.S. air strikes against Islamic State positions and vows by Kurdish commanders to recapture Yazidi villages provided no reassurances.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's easy to see why.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ten days ago, Ali and his fellow villagers were suddenly surrounded by Islamic State militants with machine guns at night. They had long beards. Some had face masks and Arabic writing on the sides of their heads.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NO ONE TO HELP</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Absent from the scene were Kurdish peshmerga, or "those who confront death", fighters who had held parts of the north and were seen as the only force that could stand up to Islamic State after thousands of U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers fled their advance, leaving them with heavy weapons including tanks</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly the men began digging ditches - soon to become mass graves.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We did not understand. Then they started to put people in those holes, those people were alive," said former grocery shop owner Ali, 46, pausing to weep.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"After a while we heard gunfire. I can't forget that scene. Women, children, crying for help. We had to run for our lives, there was nothing to be done for them."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was not possible to independently verify these accounts.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some of the Yazidis escaped with the help of Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters. But similar scenes are reported in several parts of the north.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In some of the most recent bloodshed, militants massacred at least 80 Yazidi men in Kawju village because they refused to convert to Islam, Iraqi officials said. Women and children were abducted.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State seemed most intent on killing members of Iraq's majority Shi'ite sect, which it considers to be heretical. During Islamic State's latest offensive in the north, minority Yazidis and Christians have suffered the most.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now they feel helpless again. Fellow Kurds abandoned them. Iraq has a new prime minister who is seen as moderate and may be less inclined to engage in disputes with the Kurds over budgets and oil than his predecessor, perhaps bringing political stability that could benefit the north.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But many Yazidis have lost faith in Iraq and its leaders. They have few options. Some complained that Kurdish forces would not let them travel to <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/turkey?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Turkey</a></span>.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So for now, it seems all they can do is wait, and try to forget what caused them to flee their homes.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They put women and children under the ground. They were alive. I still hear their screams. They were trying to keep their heads up to keep breathing," said car repairman Dawud Hassan, 26.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Iraq is finished for me. We had houses, shops, they all burnt our things. We have nothing. We want to cross to <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/turkey?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Turkey</a></span> but the peshmerga is not letting us. We will not stay there, we want to go to Europe."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is not clear if Iraqi government forces or peshmerga will manage to claw back territory and then hold it - something that could help Yazidis believe in their country again.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State is getting more ambitious. It has already grabbed much of the north and resources such as oil fields that will help fund its self-proclaimed caliphate.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some Yazidis, like Hassan, 22, a student, shake their heads in disbelief when recalling how only foreign Kurdish fighters from Turkey or <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span> extended a lifeline in the face of Islamic State.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two," he said beside makeshift tents as women cried.</span></div> <span id="articleText" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span id="midArticle_start"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span><span class="focusParagraph"></span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><span id="midArticle_2"></span><span id="midArticle_3"></span><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_5"></span><span id="midArticle_6"></span><span id="midArticle_7"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span><span id="midArticle_9"></span><span id="midArticle_10"></span><span id="midArticle_11"></span><span id="midArticle_12"></span><span id="midArticle_13"></span><span id="midArticle_14"></span><span id="midArticle_15"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><span id="midArticle_2"></span><span id="midArticle_3"></span><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_5"></span><span id="midArticle_6"></span><span id="midArticle_7"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span><span id="midArticle_9"></span><span id="midArticle_10"></span><span id="midArticle_11"></span><span id="midArticle_12"></span><span id="midArticle_13"></span></span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <span id="midArticle_14"></span><br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> "Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted. We barely made it."</div> </div>

Yazidis haunted by cries for help as militants bury victims alive

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the...

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Yazidis haunted by cries for help as militants bury victims alive

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="relatedPhoto landscape" id="articleImage" style="clear: left !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; width: 580px;"> <img alt="Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the Iraqi-Turkish border crossing in Zakho district of the Dohuk Governorate of the Iraqi Kurdistan province August 17, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal" border="0" src="http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140818&t=2&i=965018306&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEA7H0TD" style="display: block; width: 580px;" /><div class="rolloverCaption" id="captionContent" style="bottom: 0px; clear: both; float: left; left: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: -10px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 590px; z-index: 2;"> <div class="rolloverBg" style="background-image: none; clear: both; float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; width: 610px !important;"> <div class="captionText" style="height: 60px; padding: 10px; position: relative;"> <div style="padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the Iraqi-Turkish border crossing in Zakho district of the Dohuk Governorate of the Iraqi Kurdistan province August 17, 2014.</span></div> <div class="credit" style="margin-top: 5px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CREDIT: REUTERS/YOUSSEF BOUDLAL</span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="relatedRai" id="relatedInlineVideo"> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> <div class="module" id="relatedTopics" style="float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 140px;"> <div class="moduleHeader" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: medium none; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <h3 style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">RELATED TOPICS</span></span></h3> </div> <div class="moduleBody" style="float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <ul style="clear: both; float: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/news/world" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">World »</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> <div id="thirdPartyLinkbackNews"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" id="relatedInteractive" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(Reuters) - Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can't focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tens of thousand of Yazidis fled their ancient homeland of Sinjar and other villages to escape a dramatic push by the Sunni militants who regard the ethnic minority as devil worshippers who must embrace their radical version of Islam or die.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The refugees sit idle in camps in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iraq?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a></span>.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Traumatized by Islamic State militants notorious for beheadings and mass executions, they have simply given up on Iraq and want to go as far away as possible; to countries like<span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/germany?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Germany</a></span>, worlds away from their mysterious customs.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">U.S. air strikes against Islamic State positions and vows by Kurdish commanders to recapture Yazidi villages provided no reassurances.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's easy to see why.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ten days ago, Ali and his fellow villagers were suddenly surrounded by Islamic State militants with machine guns at night. They had long beards. Some had face masks and Arabic writing on the sides of their heads.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NO ONE TO HELP</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Absent from the scene were Kurdish peshmerga, or "those who confront death", fighters who had held parts of the north and were seen as the only force that could stand up to Islamic State after thousands of U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers fled their advance, leaving them with heavy weapons including tanks</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly the men began digging ditches - soon to become mass graves.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We did not understand. Then they started to put people in those holes, those people were alive," said former grocery shop owner Ali, 46, pausing to weep.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"After a while we heard gunfire. I can't forget that scene. Women, children, crying for help. We had to run for our lives, there was nothing to be done for them."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was not possible to independently verify these accounts.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some of the Yazidis escaped with the help of Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters. But similar scenes are reported in several parts of the north.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In some of the most recent bloodshed, militants massacred at least 80 Yazidi men in Kawju village because they refused to convert to Islam, Iraqi officials said. Women and children were abducted.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State seemed most intent on killing members of Iraq's majority Shi'ite sect, which it considers to be heretical. During Islamic State's latest offensive in the north, minority Yazidis and Christians have suffered the most.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now they feel helpless again. Fellow Kurds abandoned them. Iraq has a new prime minister who is seen as moderate and may be less inclined to engage in disputes with the Kurds over budgets and oil than his predecessor, perhaps bringing political stability that could benefit the north.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But many Yazidis have lost faith in Iraq and its leaders. They have few options. Some complained that Kurdish forces would not let them travel to <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/turkey?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Turkey</a></span>.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So for now, it seems all they can do is wait, and try to forget what caused them to flee their homes.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They put women and children under the ground. They were alive. I still hear their screams. They were trying to keep their heads up to keep breathing," said car repairman Dawud Hassan, 26.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Iraq is finished for me. We had houses, shops, they all burnt our things. We have nothing. We want to cross to <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/turkey?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Turkey</a></span> but the peshmerga is not letting us. We will not stay there, we want to go to Europe."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is not clear if Iraqi government forces or peshmerga will manage to claw back territory and then hold it - something that could help Yazidis believe in their country again.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State is getting more ambitious. It has already grabbed much of the north and resources such as oil fields that will help fund its self-proclaimed caliphate.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some Yazidis, like Hassan, 22, a student, shake their heads in disbelief when recalling how only foreign Kurdish fighters from Turkey or <span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span> extended a lifeline in the face of Islamic State.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two," he said beside makeshift tents as women cried.</span></div> <span id="articleText" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span id="midArticle_start"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span><span class="focusParagraph"></span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><span id="midArticle_2"></span><span id="midArticle_3"></span><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_5"></span><span id="midArticle_6"></span><span id="midArticle_7"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span><span id="midArticle_9"></span><span id="midArticle_10"></span><span id="midArticle_11"></span><span id="midArticle_12"></span><span id="midArticle_13"></span><span id="midArticle_14"></span><span id="midArticle_15"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><span id="midArticle_2"></span><span id="midArticle_3"></span><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_5"></span><span id="midArticle_6"></span><span id="midArticle_7"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span><span id="midArticle_9"></span><span id="midArticle_10"></span><span id="midArticle_11"></span><span id="midArticle_12"></span><span id="midArticle_13"></span></span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <span id="midArticle_14"></span><br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> "Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted. We barely made it."</div> </div>

Yazidis haunted by cries for help as militants bury victims alive

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, take part in a demonstration at the...

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Could you survive as a Christian living in Gwoza, Chibok in Nigeria or Iraq, right now?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-color: white; border: none; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 638px;"><tbody> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="638"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small;">So much happened and is still happening in North East Nigeria but just a little is being reported. Interestingly, the only report we get is about how many have been killed by Boko Haram terrorists or the number of these terrorists that have been killed by Nigerian Soldiers. In nearly all the report, there seem to be a connivance among the media to consciously forget the primary target of these Islamic terrorists. They have sisd it time without number, though we all choose to pretend about it, that Christians are their primary target. On several occasions they have commanded some Christians to deny Christianity failing which results in brutal killing.<br /><br />Like the Christians in North Eastern Nigeria so are the Christians in Mosul, Irbil etc and the Yazidi sect, in Iraq. From what is going on right now, I am constantly jealous that the threats and killings of the Yazidis was what kicked the World out of sleep. It seems that the World did not and are not considering the lives of the Christians, viciously killed by the Islamic State, right there in Mosul and other places. While these  Christians lives were being killed and forced out of their communities, forced to deny Christianity, no threat came from anywhere. No military intervention, no Aids droppings, nothing.<br /><br />The case of Christians in Iraq is even nothing to be compared with the plight of Christians in North East Nigeria. We all know that, before the wicked Islamic State wickedness began, Boko Haram terrorists have been killing Christians in Nigeria. Did you hear the sound of planes coming to drop Aids for these wickedly and viciously killed Christians? Not even a mention! The World left everything for Nigeria to handle. Several of these Christians were beheaded, burnt to death, shot dead inside their places of worship, bombed while having service and so on. All the World did was to condemn these devilish actions. While they continue to tell anyone that cares to listen that their primary goal is to Islamize the whole of a northern Nigeria, many laugh it off.<br /><br />Today, many of these Christians in Northern Nigeria are in caves, eating wild fruits and battling with dangerous animals. They have been forced out of their homes, places of worship, farms and their very lives and yet the world seem not to consider them for Aids droppings neither do Nigeria qualify to be given a hand, without unnecessary conditionalities, so as to battle these terrorists to a standstill.<br /><br />The worst is that I am yet to hear from the world acclaimed human right movements. I must say here that, it is complete hypocrisy for these people to campaign against the falling of trees and the killing of animals and fishes in the waters but yet lend no loud voice to the condemnable vicious acts of devilish wickedness against Christians in North Eastern Nigeria and in Iraq.<br /><br />Well, whether in Iraq or in Nigeria, Christians are Christians and lives are lives! Let the World speak up or forever keep Quiet in every other thing happening anywhere in the world!<br /><br />Below is details of the happening in Iraq.<br /><a href="http://lists.catholic.org/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3ljdmYub3JnL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL2VtZXJnZW5jeS1yZXNwb25zZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9lbWVyZ2VuY3ktZnVuZC1zYXZlLWlyYXFpLWNocmlzdGlhbnM=&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=MTIxNTE3NjQ3Njg%3D&CampaignID=5561&CampaignStatisticsID=14987&Demo=0&Email=c2VsZmxlc3NoZWFydHNuZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20=" shape="rect" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><img border="0" hspace="0" name="147df28016686283_ACCOUNT.IMAGE.19" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhkGt8UKIfIF1WENYE4OuQ0Xw8ND4jbRbI6bszZd7k9XP5nWef2m0fEHlke74xlUENKsuthIocoqFtiJjpJQAjXy_OzCfJzlQhQuN_VqHuuIP8bymh2c_noUHnUBX5vwWJBKsrRME4yeb9qINwksejeIIZ3Xdx2_vnjI4owVVT-_aktLLM=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: none; display: block; max-width: 100%;" vspace="0" width="638" /></a></span></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The mark of death for Christians.</span></span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There's a red mark on your door. In dripping blood-red paint, it's been marked with the Arabic letter N, a monogram for Christians. It's a mark of death, a warning. You have 24 hours to flee, leaving everything behind. No food or water, no vehicle, no money, nothing is allowed to you. </span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />To stay means death. You've heard the stories. Children beheaded, their heads displayed in a public park in Mosul. Women and girls raped and enslaved. Even those who pay the tax for being Christian have still had their family kidnapped, their wives raped and their livelihoods confiscated. The only option is to flee on foot.<br /></span><br /> <table style="border: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 608px;"><tbody> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="608"><a href="http://lists.catholic.org/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3ljdmYub3JnL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL2VtZXJnZW5jeS1yZXNwb25zZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9lbWVyZ2VuY3ktZnVuZC1zYXZlLWlyYXFpLWNocmlzdGlhbnM=&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=MTIxNTE3NjQ3Njg%3D&CampaignID=5561&CampaignStatisticsID=14987&Demo=0&Email=c2VsZmxlc3NoZWFydHNuZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20=" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" hspace="0" name="147df28016686283_ACCOUNT.IMAGE.20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhvCYUj_uqRC-_mRK3hiI_rnN46y8Pa7mhGZE8TTn0WtDqKY6ZCM02BLqBe0X4DWTjN6quqjwuySi1FA4VFdUnvXZVYfgYxi3M2uia4LtndFP0ZKJSMhQf-XqniFH63IBy994wiDIfDTVHkBweiysRhV-AvG7jUmEp8q_qE8m5CvZCN5Ys=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: none;" vspace="0" width="598" /></span></a></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Christians flee as ISIS terrorists close in to kill. Not all of them will make it.</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /><br />At a border checkpoint, your family is aggressively searched for hidden money and jewelry. A woman shrieks in pain as her finger is cut off because in her panic she could not remove the ring. In front of you, a child's favorite toy is stripped from his tiny hands, as if the Islamic State needed it.<br /><br />You know your home, heard-earned and well-kept, will be given as a reward to a terrorist fighter and his family along with all your possessions inside.<br /><br />These thoughts weigh on your mind as you are forced to walk in the grueling 120 degree summertime heat of the unrelenting Iraqi desert. You have nothing but the clothes on your back. Nobody is coming to rescue you as your lips crack with dryness.<br /></span><br /> <table style="border: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 608px;"><tbody> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="608"><a href="http://lists.catholic.org/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3ljdmYub3JnL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL2VtZXJnZW5jeS1yZXNwb25zZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9lbWVyZ2VuY3ktZnVuZC1zYXZlLWlyYXFpLWNocmlzdGlhbnM=&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=MTIxNTE3NjQ3Njg%3D&CampaignID=5561&CampaignStatisticsID=14987&Demo=0&Email=c2VsZmxlc3NoZWFydHNuZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20=" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" hspace="0" name="147df28016686283_ACCOUNT.IMAGE.21" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiYpLhySZj3b9qDjpHPfsIFvMNDR5NQCo64uQxI7Lxwp3F7VRfR2vsSGYbV7OnwvC-UgELAkgdSXt984O12QtdlgGMJovvXSs36E4Kr__lbQg5bJ_CfLWlwMap5-2vqcJ8lHQ2GJ1y2z5nJ5DxByxTnwWPTo2IxrjM6NfOedC5dbpnQf-g=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: none;" vspace="0" width="598" /></span></a></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The odds of survival in the desert are poor, especially for the elderly and young.</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /><br />You watch as the elderly collapse at the side of the road, family wailing because if they don't keep moving, roving bands of Islamic State terrorists will kill them family for sport. Grandparents are left to die from exhaustion, or at the hands of gleeful terrorists.<br /><br />If you're lucky, you might make it to a city that will take you in, but then you're likely to be shuttled to a refugee camp where all you can do is wait - a virtual prison sentence with heat and hunger for bars.<br /></span><br /> <table style="border: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 608px;"><tbody> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="608"><a href="http://lists.catholic.org/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3ljdmYub3JnL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL2VtZXJnZW5jeS1yZXNwb25zZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9lbWVyZ2VuY3ktZnVuZC1zYXZlLWlyYXFpLWNocmlzdGlhbnM=&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=MTIxNTE3NjQ3Njg%3D&CampaignID=5561&CampaignStatisticsID=14987&Demo=0&Email=c2VsZmxlc3NoZWFydHNuZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20=" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" hspace="0" name="147df28016686283_ACCOUNT.IMAGE.22" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgqMYKaCUJoLxGUbu2hTfgu8Lz7eg8mO1OrPQ7ekF6yKUM31K-v4IuTy58fN3e8qQV1-z5cQNbH3rrk1e8ZYvG7rE4nff8Oq7qlG_-gzAuwmz9FQJVOZC9CCCAzvRSpOs9-tVZKPE6ktt7tjFYzca3I1MK7idyB3vF-w6bMj565bqnTe5M=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: none;" vspace="0" width="598" /></span></a></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For Iraqi Christians, this is what good luck looks like. Could you imagine living like this?<br />Could you imagine this being your child?</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /><br />The unlucky are trapped on mountains of death, surrounded by another band of Islamic State fighters who think you should die instead of leave. For those people, trapped on a mountainside without food, water, medicine or the ability to flee, all you can do is wait for a slow death by exposure and starvation.<br /><br />The children are the first to die, especially the babies.<br /></span><br /> <table style="border: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 608px;"><tbody> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="608"><a href="http://lists.catholic.org/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3ljdmYub3JnL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL2VtZXJnZW5jeS1yZXNwb25zZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9lbWVyZ2VuY3ktZnVuZC1zYXZlLWlyYXFpLWNocmlzdGlhbnM=&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=MTIxNTE3NjQ3Njg%3D&CampaignID=5561&CampaignStatisticsID=14987&Demo=0&Email=c2VsZmxlc3NoZWFydHNuZ0BnbWFpbC5jb20=" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" hspace="0" name="147df28016686283_ACCOUNT.IMAGE.23" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgBdenfjB4KRGS4v5uZIX5J0eEMjbExQVur910K8v-VCSl9AJGZpDe6pS5xIJs5zeEzGIuq3wkNEU73a8AO4ddn2r4UTbE68yR_Gh62RT3DK62bLTloY0Uy3coC5kIH6rGUS1r08BIpcqEU6pn61s0cJ5Q3K6lVDQUL8dbtxKFRuwbz4pQ=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: none;" vspace="0" width="598" /></span></a></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many children have died in the desert. Many more are expected to die in the weeks to come.</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is not a work of fiction. This is real. This is happening right now. The only way you can help is to act now. Tomorrow will not be too late, IT IS TOO LATE. DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You can write to: selflessheartsng@gmail.com for enquiries on how you can help.</span></div>

Could you survive as a Christian living in Gwoza, Chibok in Nigeria or Iraq, right now?

So much happened and is still happening in North East Nigeria but just a little is being reported. Interestingly, the only report we get i...

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Britain is dragged deeper into the Iraq conflict: 150 more special forces are on the way as minister says the mission will take MONTHS

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Defence Secretary says mission has escalated beyond a humanitarian one</span></b></h1> <ul class="article-summary news" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Prime Minister warns the situation may require military action</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">British military planes flying deeper into Iraq to capture surveillance footage</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Footage of jihadists used to help Kurdish and Iraqi forces on the ground</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Soldiers from Yorkshire Regiment in the Kurdish region last week</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At least 1,000 Royal Marines to be deployed to Jordan in exercise with US</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kurdish and US forces set to take back strategically important Mosul Dam</span></b></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">New deployment of 150 special forces troops likely to begin later this week</span></b></li> </ul> <div class="author-section mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="author-section mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By <a class="author" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=David+Williams" rel="nofollow" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">DAVID WILLIAMS</a> and <a class="author" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Jack+Doyle+for+the+Daily+Mail" rel="nofollow" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">JACK DOYLE, FOR THE DAILY MAIL</a></span></div> <div class="byline-section mol-para-with-font" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Britain was dragged deeper into the Iraq crisis last night as it emerged another 150 special forces troops are being deployed.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the mission had escalated beyond a humanitarian one and could last for months.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">British forces are now helping Iraq to ‘combat’ the rise of Islamic State and its extreme form of terrorism, he said. And in his most uncompromising intervention to date, Prime Minister David Cameron warned that the situation may now require ‘military action to go after the terrorists’. </span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div class="clear" style="border: 0px !important; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: auto;"> </div> <div class="artSplitter" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Change of tack: Michael Fallon, pictured meeting British forces at the RAF base in Akrotiri, Cyprus this weekend, said the mission had escalated beyond a humanitarian one and could last for months" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="0" height="440" id="i-eab6bf27a18ab027" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/article-2727439-20991F6700000578-629_634x440.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><br /> <div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+7</span></span></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Change of tack: Michael Fallon, pictured meeting British forces at the RAF base in Akrotiri, Cyprus this weekend, said the mission had escalated beyond a humanitarian one and could last for months</span></div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said the Islamist fanatics of IS had to be stopped before they became strong enough to launch attacks on British soil.</span></div> <div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727439/Britain-dragged-deeper-Iraq-conflict-150-special-forces-way-minister-says-mission-months.html#ixzz3AjAwQ2Ck" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727439/Britain-dragged-deeper-Iraq-conflict-150-special-forces-way-minister-says-mission-months.html#ixzz3AjAwQ2Ck</a><br />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bBOTTqvd0r3Pooab7jrHcU&u=MailOnline" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@MailOnline on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bBOTTqvd0r3Pooab7jrHcU&u=DailyMail" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">DailyMail on Facebook</a></span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mr Cameron spoke amid a series of dramatic developments on the ground that will fuel concerns about mission creep and prompt fresh demands for the recall of Parliament:</span><br /> <ul style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">British military planes are flying deeper into Iraq to capture surveillance footage of jihadist fighters which is being used to help Kurdish and Iraqi forces on the ground.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regular soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment were in the Kurdish region last week – despite Downing Street’s assurances there would be no ‘boots on the ground’.  </span></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At least 1,000 Royal Marines are being deployed to Jordan in a long-planned joint military exercise with the US.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kurdish and US forces made a major advance against IS – and are poised to take back the strategically important Mosul Dam.</span></li> </ul> <div class="clear" style="border: 0px !important; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: auto;"> </div> <div class="artSplitter" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Mission: A RAF Tornado lands at RAF Akrotiri. British military planes are flying deeper into Iraq to capture surveillance footage of jihadist fighters" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="1" height="373" id="i-eab0df41aab9bf37" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/article-2727439-20991F0700000578-652_634x373.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><br /> <div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+7</span></span></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mission: A RAF Tornado lands at RAF Akrotiri. British military planes are flying deeper into Iraq to capture surveillance footage of jihadist fighters</span></div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="clear" style="border: 0px !important; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: auto;"> </div> <div class="artSplitter" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Purpose: Britain has limited its role to aid drops, surveillance and transporting supplies to Kurdish forces" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="2" height="356" id="i-9ca7be41ab121cc4" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/article-2727439-20991F0F00000578-965_634x356.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><br /> <div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+7</span></span></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Purpose: Britain has limited its role to aid drops, surveillance and transporting supplies to Kurdish forces</span></div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="floatRHS" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 20px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 308px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Church accuses PM of failing Christians" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="3" height="629" id="i-ea1a7477c9706db4" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/article-2727439-209A233500000578-904_306x629.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="306" /></span><br /> <div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+7</span></span></div> </div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The new deployment of 150 special forces troops is likely to begin later this week. It will include signals specialists and electronics experts with equipment capable of intercepting voice transmissions at a distance of more than 150 miles. </span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There will also be men from a new SBS unit which will be used to monitor sensitive areas of the Jordanian border.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Earlier, Mr Cameron said Britain should use its military prowess to stop Islamists creating ‘a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean’. He said the UK was ‘in  the middle of a generational  struggle against a poisonous and  extremist ideology’.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Prime Minister added: ‘If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain.’</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Until now, Britain has limited its role to aid drops, surveillance and transporting supplies to Kurdish forces. But Mr Cameron, writing in a Sunday newspaper, said: ‘True security will only be achieved if we use all our resources – aid, diplomacy, our military prowess – to help bring about a more stable world.’</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He added: ‘We need a firm security response, whether that is military action to go after the terrorists, international co-operation on intelligence and counter-terrorism or uncompromising action against terrorists at home.’</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While saying he did not back full-scale military involvement and ‘sending armies to fight or occupy’, Mr Cameron left open the possibility of Britain taking on a more direct role in supporting Iraqi and Kurdish troops on the ground.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Speaking on a visit to the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, Mr Fallon said: ‘This is not simply a humanitarian mission. We and other countries in Europe are determined to do what we can to help the government of Iraq combat this new and very extreme form of terrorism.’</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mr Fallon revealed that troops from 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment flew in as part of preparations for a helicopter mission to save stranded members of the Yazidi group on a mountainside. They were on the ground for 24 hours before flying back to Cyprus after the operation was called off.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Addressing airmen and soldiers at the base, Mr Fallon said: ‘This mission isn’t over. The humanitarian needs are there…There may well now be in the next few weeks and months other ways that we may need to help save life, protect people. We are going to need all of you again and the surveillance you are able to give us.’</span></div> <div class="clear" style="border: 0px !important; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: auto;"> </div> <div class="artSplitter" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="image-wrap fff-pic" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Advance: A Kurdish peshmerga fighter close to the strategically important Mosul Dam, which Kurdish and US forces are poised to take back" class="blkBorder img-share" data-track-pos="4" height="424" id="i-efe3bd01e8dc9b62" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/article-2727439-20992A3200000578-703_634x424.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="634" /></span><br /> <div class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; bottom: 11px; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 36px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px;"> <div class="mobile-gallery-icon" style="background-image: url(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/mobile/icon_camera_90x68.png); background-position: 10px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 27px; box-sizing: content-box; display: table-cell; float: none; height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 24px;"> </div> <span style="display: table-cell; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">+7</span></span></div> </div> <div class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Advance: A Kurdish peshmerga fighter close to the strategically important Mosul Dam, which Kurdish and US forces are poised to take back</span></div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="moduleFull" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <br /> <div class="item" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"> <div id="v-3735115909001" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;"> <div class="videoplayer-large" style="height: 358px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 636px;"> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></a><br /> <div class="videoplayer-title-bg" style="box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 0px 3px 5px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 636px;"> </div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </a> <div class="videoplayer-title" style="left: 6px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 4px;"> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;">US military releases footage of air strikes on Mosul Dam</a></div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="btnBg" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; box-shadow: rgb(51, 51, 51) 2px 2px 3px; height: 85px; left: 275.5px; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 140px; width: 85px;"> </div> <span class="playbtn" style="border-color: transparent transparent transparent rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: dashed dashed dashed solid; border-width: 0.53em 0.53em 0.53em 1em; display: inline-block; height: 0px; left: 289.5px; position: absolute; right: 0.25em; top: 151.5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 0px;"></span><center style="text-align: left;"> <img class="plcHlder" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/17/video-undefined-209A22F100000578-669_636x358.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 358px; margin: 0px; max-width: 636px; padding: 0px; width: 636px;" /></center> </a></div> <div class="news" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <div class="wocc videoplayer-keyline" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; height: 4px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In recent weeks IS fighters have seized vast swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, advancing towards Baghdad and prompting US air strikes.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yesterday, US warplanes helped by Kurdish forces were on the brink of recapturing the Mosul Dam, which supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq, amid ‘fierce resistance’ from Islamists. It was reported yesterday that another 300 Yazidi men from the Sinjar mountain area are among their victims, with some beheaded in front of their own families.</span></div> <div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">British military planes are filming surveillance footage on jihadist fighters which is passed to the US and used to help Kurdish and Iraqi forces.   The UK has more than 100 members of the SAS, SBS, Reconnaissance Regiment and signals specialists in Baghdad and  around Irbil.</span></div> </div>

Britain is dragged deeper into the Iraq conflict: 150 more special forces are on the way as minister says the mission will take MONTHS

Defence Secretary says mission has escalated beyond a humanitarian one Prime Minister warns the situation may require military action ...

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