WHO ARE THE YAZIDIS?
One of the reasons the U.S. has intervened in Iraq is to protect tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped by Islamic State fighters in a northern Iraq mountain range.
Q. Who are they Yazidis?
A. A long-oppressed sect whose faith reputedly combines elements of Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian form of monotheism.
Q. Why have they been persecuted?
A. Their worship centers on a fallen angel called Malek Tawwus, or Peacock Angel. Because Satan is a fallen angel, those who persecute the Yazidis label them devil worshippers. But the Yazidis believe Malek Tawwus, unlike Lucifer, was forgiven by God and restored to grace.
Q. What else sets them apart?
A. They do not share details of their faith with outsiders, nor do they welcome converts. They will not wear blue and are forbidden to eat lettuce. And while they are said to pray repeatly during the day, they face the sun instead of Islam's holy city, Mecca, as Muslims do.
Q. How many Yazidis are there?
A. As many as 600,000, living mainly in Kurdish-speaking areas and concentrated in northern Iraq. Among overseas communities is one in Lincoln, Neb. They say they have suffered 72 massacres over the centuries and may now be facing a 73rd.
Sources: Politico, Guardian, Telegraph, ABC News, Wahsington Post
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
• The U.S. launched airstrikes Friday in Iraq on targets including mobile artillery and a mortar position, using Navy F/A-18 fighters and a drone aircraft. All of the targets were near the threatened Kurdish capital of Irbil, where a contingent of U.S. advisers is based.
• U.S. allies, including Britain and Turkey, said they would pitch in with humanitarian assistance, but were not ready to join the fighting.
• The Federal Aviation Administration banned U.S. air carriers from flying through Iraqi airspace until further notice, citing the hazard posed by the conflict.
• Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warned the U.S., which he called “the holder of the Cross,” that “the sons of Islam” were prepared to fight back.
• Congressional leaders expressed support for the military intervention, but worried either that it was not enough or that it might drag the U.S. back into a ground war in Iraq — something President Barack Obama has vowed will not happen.
— From news services
President Barack Obama’s new military strategy in Iraq amounts to trying to contain — not destroy — the Islamic militant group that now controls much of the country’s northern region, leaving open the questions of how deeply the U.S. will be drawn into the sectarian conflict — and whether airstrikes alone can stop the militants’ momentum.
Obama insists he will not send American ground troops back to Iraq after having withdrawn them in 2011, fulfilling a campaign promise. Still, even the limited airstrikes against the insurgency show the president’s conviction that the U.S. military cannot remain dormant after having fought an eight-year war that has failed to produce lasting peace.
U.S. military jets dropped food and water to imperiled refugees in northwestern Iraq and launched several airstrikes Friday on isolated targets, including two mortar positions and a vehicle convoy in northeastern Iraq, near the country’s Kurdish capital of Irbil. Additional airdrops and targeted strikes were thought likely.
The next move may be up to the Islamic State group, the al-Qaida-inspired extremists who have chewed up Iraqi opposition so far.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said of the Islamic State group, “They are well organized and they’re armed and they are a significant threat to the stability of Iraq.”
About three dozen U.S. military trainers and a U.S. consulate are in Irbil, where Kurdish forces are fighting off a militant advance. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the Islamic State group must at least halt its advance on Irbil if it wants to avoid further strikes.
Iraq has been pleading for months for additional U.S. military help to combat the extremists, but the U.S. pulled out of Iraq in part because it could nott reach an agreement with the government on legal immunity for U.S. troops. Harf said the Obama administration acted now out of concern that “there was a crisis that had the potential to get much worse.”
U.S. officials said the Islamic State extremists in recent days have shown military skill, including using artillery in sophisticated synchronization with other heavy weapons. Their force had overwhelmed not only Iraqi government troops but also the highly reputed Kurdish militia.
The Obama administration steadfastly insists the airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops are not the start of an open-ended campaign to defeat the militants.
The president’s critics say his approach is too narrow.
“A policy of containment will not work,” Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Obama’s chief foreign policy critics, said in a joint statement.
The Islamic militants are “inherently expansionist and must be stopped,” the senators said. “The longer we wait to act, the worse this threat will become.”
Beyond airstrikes, the administration has been asked to provide arms directly to the Kurdish forces defending Irbil. Until now, the U.S. has been willing to do that only through the central government in Baghdad, which has long feuded with the semi-autonomous Kurdish government in Iraq’s north.
Michael Barbero, a retired Army general who ran the U.S. training mission in Iraq from 2009 to 2011, said Baghdad never delivered about $200 million worth of American weapons that were designated for the Kurds. Pentagon officials maintain they can provide arms only to the Iraqi government, although Harf said Friday the Kurdish forces play a critical role in the crisis.
“We understand their need for additional arms and equipment and are working to provide those as well so they are reinforced,” she said.
In announcing his decision to intervene militarily, Obama stated plainly that he would not allow the U.S. “to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.”
But Obama’s limited use of air power leads some to ask whether that approach will make a lasting difference. It also raises questions about whether Obama underestimated the staying power of the extremists, who control an impressive stretch of territory from the outskirts of the Syrian city of Aleppo to the edges of Baghdad.
The insurgents frequently launch bombings and other attacks in Baghdad, mostly targeting Shiites and government officials, often within sight and hearing of the U.S. Embassy, which is located in the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
“I think the administration realizes that we’re dealing with that rarest of things in President Obama’s world, which is a military situation that has to be resolved militarily,” said James F. Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when American troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. The basic problem, Jeffrey said, is “these guys have to be stopped. And it’s not a matter of whether the U.S. should stop them — it’s a matter of when.”
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