Sinjar

Kurdish and Yazidi fighters battled to take the strategic northern Iraqi town of Sinjar back from
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Dec. 21 after breaking a months-long siege of the mountain above it.

Seizing the town would restore the majority of territory Iraq's Kurds lost in the jihadist group's surprise August offensive.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani hailed victories over the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a visit on Dec. 21 to Mount Sinjar, which had been besieged by the militants for months.

ISIL's focus on women criticised in Turkey and the Balkans

Citizens and experts urge states to react decisively against ISIL and its propaganda.

Atrocities being committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) include the recruitment of women to serve as sex slaves for fighters.

US President Barack Obama on August 9 vowed to continue air strikes against Iraqi jihadists if needed to protect US diplomats and military advisors.
 
Speaking in his weekly address, Obama said that he had authorized the strikes in Iraq to protect US personnel serving in the northern city of Arbil. "And, if necessary, that’s what we will continue to do," he said.
 

Thousands of Yazidis and Turkmens have fled jihadist depravity only to face death from starvation and lack of water in Iraq’s searing summer heat Thousands of Yazidis and Turkmens are marooned in the Sinjar Mountain area without food and water after the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar following the retreat of the peshmerga.

The U.N. Security Council on Aug. 5 condemned attacks by jihadists in northern Iraq, warning those responsible could face trial for crimes against humanity, amid fears the besieged Yazidi minority could be wiped out.

Ankara is mobilizing aid to protect Iraqi Turkmens on the southern neighbor’s territory in response to the threat posed by the jihadist ISIL Turkey is accelerating its plans to help construct a new refugee camp in northern Iraq for Turkmens who were forced to flee north after the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) captured the Sinjar region.

The Islamic State group warned Monday it would seek to further expand into autonomous Kurdish territory after claiming key towns and areas over the past 48 hours.
      
"Islamic State brigades have now reached the border triangle between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. May God Almighty allow his mujahideen to liberate the whole region," it said in a statement.
      

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have captured two northern Iraqi towns and an oil field in their first major victory over Kurdish fighters, witnesses said on Aug. 3.
 

Thousands of Turkmen refugees who fled ISIL violence in Telafer are being abandoned to their fate under 50 degrees of hot weather in the desert A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Iraq as Turkmens who fled the advance of the feared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are now succumbing to the region’s scorching summer sun as refugees.