http://rt.com/news/178548-thousands-iraqis-trapped-mountains/Thousands from the minority Yazidi community are stranded in the mountains of northwestern Iraq. If they make a move, they face slaughter at the hands of Islamic State jihadists surrounding them. However, they risk dying of dehydration if they stay put.Many of those trapped are women and children taking refuge in nine locations on Mount Sinjar – a craggy ridge which, as legend has it, was the last resting place of Noah’s ark.
Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi lawmaker, said the siege has already cost many lives, including children.
"Seventy children have already died of thirst and 30 elderly people have also died," she told the Guardian. "Over the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged in the Sinjar Mountains, with no water and no food.”
Baghdad sent helicopters to drop supplies to people on the mountain, though the amounts were limited.
“Food is low, ammunition is low and so is water. We have one piece of bread to share between 10 people. We have to walk two kilometers to get water. There were some air strikes yesterday [against the jihadists], but they have made no difference,” Nafiee, a man hiding on the mountain, said.
At least 500 Yazidis, including 40 children, have already been killed over the past week. Many more have received death threats, either from IS militants or members of the Sunni community who have allied with them for fears of reprisal.
Another 130,000 Yazidis have fled the city of Sinjar for Dohuk and Irbil in the Kurdish controlled north, where authorities are struggling to cope with one of the biggest refugee movements in decades.
“We are being told to convert or to lose our heads. There is no one coming to help. They were our neighbors and now they are our killers,” said Khuldoon Atyas, who stayed behind to look after his family’s crops. Before the siege, Sinjar was home to 300,000 people.
Topic: Over 30,000 Iraqis trapped in mountains as IS threatens to kill them (Read 702 times)