BREAKING VIDEO for the BOG from an entry posted to the White House Blog:

[freshwest]

Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2014, 02:38 AM - Edit history (1)

Helicopter carrying aid reaches Mount Sinjar - LoneWolf Sager

Published on Aug 9, 2014

A glimpse of desperate plight of Yazidis trapped on the mountaintop, besieged by extremists from the Islamic State in Iraq. Kurdish forces and a human rights organization distributed food and water to those in need on Friday.

- LoneWolf & The Three Muskadoggies "Please.... Remember Our Homeless, Hospitalized & Disabled Veterans & Fallen Heroes! Thank You....America!"

Note:

Shows helicopter finding mountain, seems to be firing against ISIS to get there, dropping off aid.

And then, without the load, taking on passengers to escape. They are in shock, terrified, crying. It made me cry, there's a lot of grief in the world today.

It will take time to get this done. American airpower can do this but it will be dangerous. This is the area the Kurds had to flee from ISIS, where the Iraqis were unable to get through with trucks past ISIS forces.

So here it is. Will post more as I find it.

[freshwest]

1. Same video, different source, more details:

Rudaw Exclusive: Helicopter Carrying Aid Reaches Mount Shingal

Published on Aug 8, 2014

Kurdish soldiers are loading much-needed food and water onto this helicopter destined for mount Shingal where thousands of Yezidi civilians are stranded.

They are not speaking English but it turns out all but the pilots and maybe the gunners are Kurdish soldiers. I don't know who the man talking is but I just noticed that it says... if I read the translation right... There are a 100,000 on the mountain.

What a miserable place to be trapped. These people, like a group of Christians, were told to convert or die and were only allowed to leave with the clothes. Obama mentioned the Christians and the sect here by name and that ISIS were going after religious minorities.

[freshwest]

2. DW video post Saddam story, despite the date. Kurdistan is nothing like what I expected.

Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2014, 12:38 AM - Edit history (2)

Iraqi Christians in Peril | Faith Matters

Published on Feb 5, 2013

Abbot Gabriel works with Christian refugees in northern Iraq. Joseph Yunis is one of them. He was kidnapped by Islamist terrorists and only released after a ransom of 20,000 dollars was paid. He and his family have now fled from Mosul.

Read more:

http://www.dw.de/program/faith-matters/s-3952-9798

So here it more. I'm getting rather disturbed at the content of these videos. I see no reason to doubt what is going on, but it's different seeing the real people this is happening to and the area they live in. Now things are worse, as ISIS likely won't leave Kurdistan alone, they are on their way to Syria and beyond. And it's not a vacant desert, that's for sure.

[freshwest]

4. More about Kurdistan and the women fighters there:

Women fighters in kurdistan 2013 (documentary)

Akar Araz - Aug 20, 2013

Women fighters in kurdistan!!! Peshmerge and Gerilla Kurdish Security & Forces! is kurdistan safe?

This seems sounds more like an infomerical, not a documentary. America is *really* involved with the Kurds and yes, there is oil and gas there, and they've become quite prosperous and modern.

I didn't know what it was like as during the IW I only saw video and stories of people in the countryside. I do know that western companies made contracts and helped them grow their economy.

What they really want, is their own country. This is making my head hurt. BOGers, this is for you.

I'm posting this here since Kurdistan is a big part of what Obama is doing as they were unable to repell ISIS and lost Irbil where many Americans are. I didn't realize what ISIS has their hands on now.

This video mentions women and are threads today about the women:

As ISIS Advances, Kurdish Female Fighters Take a Stand

In early 2013, Ruwayda, the commander of the first all-female brigade of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (or PYD), oversaw 53 fighters, working with the Free Syrian Army to stop Assad's forces from entering Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo.

After holding off the regime, she and her brigade returned to their home base, the predominantly Kurdish northern city of the Afrin, turning their efforts to stopping the advance of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"I believe in a greater cause, which is protecting our families and our cities from the extremists' brutality and dark ideas," she says. "I read Nietzsche and Marx, which they don't accept. They don't accept having women in leadership positions. They want us to cover ourselves and become housewives to attend to their needs only. They think we have no right to talk and control our lives."

Kurdish women, regarded as some of the most liberal in the region, have a decades-long history of fighting. Many have fought with the PKK, an internationally recognized terror organization that works with the YPG, in southern Turkey.

http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2014/08/5923/isis-advances-kurdish-female-fighters-stand/

to randysf:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5360988

From that thread:

Awesome free will freedom fighters. Goddamn. They will be treated worse than men if ISIS wins.



to ancianita:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025360988#post3

There are more but I'm bit blown away by all of this. I almost feel militaristic, or something. I don't that.

[IrishAyes]

11. I don't think they'll let themselves be captured alive.

Sorry I've been so long getting to the threads, but you know I never like to miss anything.

That's a great picture of the women soldiers at the bottom. Saved to my hard drive. When I get a digital photo frame someday to stream to my big wall tv, it's going to take hours to go through one cycle!

Most warriors I ever met would rather be left to live in peace because they know more than the stay-at-homes what it costs to hold back the enemy.

That said, if I may digress a bit... one of my favorite pictures from several years back shows a young female IRA soldier alone in battle against British forces occupying Belfast. It's my understanding the British Army has completely withdrawn its official presence from Northern Ireland now. It would be good to see all those with British loyalties sent packing to the country some of them still prefer over their own. Can't serve two masters.

[sheshe2]

3. Oh, freshwest. It makes me cry too. Those poor sweet souls.

Here's an aid drop I got from TOD...not much to see. yet...

US Military Air-Drop of Food and Water over Sinjar in Iraq
(What A Difference From Dropping Bombs)

http://theobamadiary.com/

[Cha]

5. Thank you, fresh.. I will see this when I get back..

Thank you for posting this.

[freshwest]

6. Thanks.. get a hanky for that first one... and maybe more.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Off to the greatest with you love.

Love and Peace. . .

[sheshe2]

8. Kicking!

I have to go...

[Cha]

9. So heartbreaking for them, fresh.. :(

so intensely heartbreaking.. Mahalo for posting the vid here. It needs to be seen.

[freshwest]

10. UPDATE:

20,000 Iraqis besieged by Isis escape from mountain after US air strikes
Yazidi minority surrounded by Islamist militants on Mount Sinjar escorted back to Iraqi Kurdistan after fleeing via Syria

Haroon Siddique - 10 August 2014

Shawkat Barbahari, an official from the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, said 30,000 people had escaped to Syria and then been escorted back into Iraqi Kurdistan by Kurdish forces. A spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Iraq said officials had been reporting to the UN that 15,000 to 20,000 people had escaped the siege. Fears had been growing for the civilians, mostly Kurds of the Yazidi faith, trapped on Mount Sinjar in north-west Iraq in the searing summer heat with little to eat or drink.

The breakthrough coincided with US air raids on Isis fighters in the Sinjar area on Saturday. Barack Obama, who sanctioned the air strikes on Friday, has said the US is in it for the long-haul, warning "this is going to take some time".

Barbahari, who is in charge of the Fishkhabur crossing with Syria, told AFP: "The Kurdish peshmerga forces have succeeded in making 30,000 Yazidis who fled Mount Sinjar, most of them women and children, cross into Syria and return to Kurdistan. Most of them crossed yesterday and today, this operation is ongoing and we really don't know how many are still up there on the mountain."

Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil, who is from the Yazidi minority, said 20,000 to 30,000 had managed to flee the mountain they ran to a week ago when militants overran the Sinjar region and were now in Iraqi Kurdistan. "The passage isn't 100% safe," she said. "There is still a risk."

More at link:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/iraq-yazidi-isis-jihadists-islamic-state-kurds/print

to rollin74:

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1014867084#post1

From thread by flamingdem:

Kurdish forces claim to recapture 2 Iraqi towns from IS with US air support

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1014867084