Robomatic, I have culled postings regarding the Yazidis from the Caliphate thread so you will know they have been disussed. I have cut and pasted them exactly, except that I have (deleted) references to other religio-ethnic confrontations (if they did not affect the meaning of the post) so the focus is solely on them.
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From: bobad - PM
Date: 05 Aug 14 - 08:43 AM

"Iraq's Yazidi minority has fled from Islamic State fighters as the UN says 'a humanitarian tragedy' is unfolding in Sinjar."

Al Jazeera
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From: Richard Bridge - PM
Date: 05 Aug 14 - 09:27 AM

I have an idea. The USA can take its aid from Israel and give it to the Yazidi.

I did however think we were all agreed that ISIS were uncivilised wankers - and the further they go the more Muslims say that ISIS in no way truly represents Islam (as neither does Boko Haram).   Or do you differ, Poo-bad?
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From: beardedbruce - PM
Date: 05 Aug 14 - 11:32 AM

Iraq's jihadis have vowed to wipe out the Yazidis. Who are they?
The ancient religious group, concentrated in Iraq, have been targeted for extermination by the so-called 'Islamic State' that seized a number of towns along the Iraq-Syrian border this week.

Christian Science Monitor By Lydia Tomkiw
46 minutes ago

The arrival of the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar over the weekend sent the native religious minority fleeing. Yazidis, labeled by IS (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIS) "devil worshippers," have a long history of persecution.

Forty Yazidi children were reported killed and reports of forced conversions and murders have now emerged. A Yazidi parliamentarian fleeing northern Iraq told the Washington Post, "In our history, we have suffered 72 massacres. We are worried Sinjar could be a 73rd."

The Sinjar area, near the border with Syria, is strategically important for IS, just 50 miles from Mosul. The United Nations has said close to 200,000 have fled the area, calling it a "humanitarian tragedy."

http://news.yahoo.com/iraqs-jihadis-vowed-wipe-yazidis-144449482.html
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From: Keith A of Hertford - PM
Date: 05 Aug 14 - 12:09 PM

BBC same story.

"The UN children's agency has expressed "extreme concern" over reports that 40 children from Iraq's Yazidi minority died after an offensive by jihadists.

Unicef says reports indicate the children died as a "direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration" over the past two days.

Thousands of Yazidis fled into the mountains after the Islamic State (IS) overran the town of Sinjar on Sunday.

Yazidis follow an ancient faith that jihadists condemn as devil worship.

"Families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children who are now stranded in mountains surrounding Sinjar and are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including drinking water and sanitation services," Unicef said.

BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says the Unicef statement goes some way towards confirming some of the most disturbing reports coming out of the heartland of the Yazidi community.

Images posted on the internet showed small clusters of people gathered on the sides of a canyon in the Sinjar mountains.

There have been unconfirmed reports of massacres in Yazidi villages by the jihadists, our correspondent adds"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28663926
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From: beardedbruce - PM
Date: 05 Aug 14 - 01:50 PM

There have been unconfirmed reports of massacres in Yazidi villages by the jihadists, our correspondent adds.

Jawhar Ali Begg, a spokesman for the Yazidi community, said on Monday that after overrunning Sinjar, IS (formerly known as Isis) had given them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.




There are estimated to be around 500,000 Yazidis worldwide, most living in Iraq's Nineveh plains
In August 2007 jihadists attacked Yazidi villages in Nineveh, killing between 400 and 700 people


400 to 700 out of 500,000-

Compared to 1,900 out of 1,800,000 Gazans- YET NO_ONE HERE CALLS IT GENOCIDE.
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From: bobad - PM
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 04:43 PM

Kurdish members of Iraq's Yezidi religious minority in Sinjar are being massacred by ISIS if they refuse to convert to Islam. They're ancient fire-worshipers with roots in Zoroastrianism and they long predate the Koran.

More than 300 of them so far have been murdered for their religion alone.

Killings of this sort on a large scale are called genocide.

ISIS Exterminating Minorities in Iraq
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From: bobad - PM
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 05:05 PM

Where's the UN on this one?

BAGHDAD — Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst.

Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.

Iraqi Yazidis stranded on isolated mountaintop begin to die of thirst
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From: Keith A of Hertford - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 04:33 AM

Guardian 3 hours ago,

"Tens of thousands of members of one of Iraq's oldest minorities have been stranded on a mountain in the country's north-west, facing slaughter at the hands of jihadists surrounding them below if they flee, or death by dehydration if they stay.

UN groups say at least 40,000 members of the Yazidi sect, many of them women and children, have taken refuge in nine locations on Mount Sinjar, a craggy, mile-high ridge identified in local legend as the final resting place of Noah's ark.

At least 130,000 more people, many from the Yazidi stronghold of Sinjar, have fled to Dohuk, in the Kurdish north, or to Irbil, where regional authorities have been struggling since June to deal with one of the biggest and most rapid refugee movements in decades.

Sinjar itself has been all but emptied of its 300,000 residents since jihadists stormed the city late on Saturday, but an estimated 25,000 people remain. "We are being told to convert or to lose our heads," said Khuldoon Atyas, who has stayed behind to guard his family's crops. "There is no one coming to help."

Another man, who is hiding in the mountains and identified himself as Nafi'ee, said: "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 2km to get water."

"At least 500 Yazidis, including 40 children, have been killed in the past week, local officials say. Many more have received direct threats, either from the advancing militants or members of nearby Sunni communities allied with them. "They were our neighbours and now they are our killers," said Atyas.

"It's not like this is a one-off incident," said the Unicef spokeswoman Juliette Touma. "We are almost back to square zero in terms of the preparedness and the supplies. Enormous numbers of people have been crossing the border since June.

"The stresses are enormous; dehydration, fatigue, people sometimes having to walk for days. The impact on kids is very physical, let alone the psychological impact."
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From: Teribus - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 06:11 AM

"Doesn't seem very relevant to the present, though, as ISIS is not making its territorial gains through air power." - Richard Bridge

Sorry Richard I thought your concern was for those about to be butchered not exchange of real estate.

Relevance as I seem to have to spell out for you in the light of the question you originally asked is as follows:

In 1991 Saddam Hussein threatened and attempted to kill thousands of Iraqi Kurds in retribution in the immediate aftermath of his defeat Desert Storm - The UK from NATO bases inside Turkey mounted a land and air operation to prevent that.

Today ISIS forces threaten to kill 40,000 of Iraq's Kurdish Yezidi religious minority - You asked who could come to their aid - at least that is what I thought you were asking? Answer of course would be the Iraqi Armed Forces provided that waste of space Nouri Al-Maliki can get his act together.
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From: bobad - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 06:23 AM

(deleted)

The poignant lament of an Iraqi named Karim, quoted in this short newyorker.com story, captures the helpless frustration of many minorities facing existential danger in areas controlled by ISIL, the terrorist group, while much of the world has been transfixed by the war between Israel and Hamas. While both Israelis and Palestinians have carelessly bandied about the word "genocide," it is a real threat for the communities in ISIL's crosshairs.

Genocide watch: the Iraqi communities most endangered by the rise of ISIL
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From: Teribus - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 08:15 AM

" Iraq was decimating the Kurds through use of air power. The operation you describe sterilised that air power."

The Kurds were being attacked by both the Iraqi Air Force and by the Iraqi Army.

"ISIS is not decimating (or worse) the Yazidi through air power but through land power."

Ah so that's alright is it? They are not decimating those they have trapped they are intent on slaughtering every last one of them. Yet as others have said not one yelp of objection can be heard above the roar of "Save Gaza, save Gaza".

"So how do you think the Iraqi forces can resist that land power? The last rumble between Isis and them ended, did it not, with the Iraqi's abandoning their weapons and running away?"

The Iraqi Army and the Shia Militias will do it, might take time but they will do it. The last time? Well they were for the most part Police and Border Police Units with some Army units - I note the ISIS "drive" on Baghdad has halted? Changed their minds have they? Or has something else changed it for them?   

"Israel could be stopped by cutting off arms sales to it and cutting off the massive US subsidy."

Possibly could but we both know that that is not going to happen don't we?

"Isis? Last I heard the assets they seized made them richer than the rest of Iraq. OK, maybe I exaggerate, but how far off is it?   They are apparently not susceptible to financial pressure, only military."

And what good are those assets? Can they produce oil? Can they transport it to any loading terminal? Can they sell it? Rhetorical question Richard the answer to all is a big NO, so those assets are of no use to them whatsoever.

"Similarly apparently Boko Haram outguns the Nigerian army (and like the Viet Cong hides in dense forest)."

Early days yet for that bunch, but their time is coming, their métier is destruction - they have no future.
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From: beardedbruce - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 12:05 PM

(deleted)

The Islamic State has put Iraq's survival as a unified state in jeopardy.

The capture of one of the towns, Sinjar, home to many of Iraq's Yazidi minority sect in a weekend offensive could lead to a humanitarian crisis.

Yazidis, ethnic Kurds who follow an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are at high risk of being executed because the Islamic State militants view them as devil worshippers.

Yawar said 50,000 Yazidis now hiding on a mountain risked starving to death if they were not rescued within 24 hours.

"Urgent international action is needed to save them. Many of them, mainly the elderly, children and pregnant women, have (already) died," he said.

"We can't stop the Islamic State from attacking the people on the mountain because there is one paved road leading up to the mountain and it can be used by them. They (Islamic State fighters) are trying to get to that road."
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From: bobad - PM
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 09:15 PM

Good on the US but shame on Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who have hundreds of aircraft and could easily have helped rescue the Christians, Shias and Yazidi Kurds, but chose not to.

President Obama approves humanitarian air drops in Northern Iraq
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JotSC