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| Second Northern Iraq offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of TheWar in Iraq | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Islamic State[17] | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
.svg) Gewargis HannaYonadam Kanna Haydar Shesho | Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
150,000 federal soldiers[19][20] 190,000 Kurdish peshmerga[25] | 20,000–31,500[26] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 1,652 killed 1,460 wounded[27] | 3,112 killed[28] 673 wounded[29] | ||||||||
| 5,000 Yazidis killed[30] 5,000–7,000 Yazidis abducted[31] | |||||||||
Between 1 and 15 August 2014, theIslamic State (IS) expanded territory in northernIraq under their control. In the region north and west fromMosul, the Islamic State conqueredZumar,Sinjar, Wana,Mosul Dam,Qaraqosh,Tel Keppe,Batnaya and Kocho, and in the region south and east of Mosul the townsBakhdida,Karamlish,Bartella andMakhmour
The offensive resulted in 200,000Yazidi civilians and 100,000Assyrians driven from their homes,5,000 Yazidi men massacred,5,000–7,000 Yazidi women enslaved, and a foreignmilitary intervention against the Islamic State.
After the withdrawal of Iraqi federal forces from advancing Islamic state troops from many cities, and later the withdrawal of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from many positions including the Qaraqosh and Sinjar,[32] 50,000 of Sinjar'sYazidis took refuge in the adjacentSinjar Mountains, where they lacked food, water, and other necessities. While providing help and aid to refugees, an Iraqi helicopter crashed, killing the pilot and injuring several passengers, including an Iraqi member of parliament and a photographer on assignment for TIME.[33] 35,000 to 45,000 of them were evacuated within several weeks afterthe United States bombed IS positions, and theIraqi armed forces, KurdishPeople's Defence Forces,People's Protection Units, andPeshmerga forcesopened a humanitarian corridor to enable their escape. Some IS-controlled territory was retaken; a subsequent Kurdishcounter-attack recaptured the Mosul Dam and several other nearby towns.
In June 2014,Islamic State invaded and conquered significant territories in western and northernIraq, including the cities ofMosul, Iraq's second largest town, with over a million residents, andTikrit, 200 km south of Mosul. Iraqi federal military forces withdrew from the advancing IS troops andKurdishPeshmerga fighters withdrew from Qaraqosh and Sinjar and later took over the control of a wide territory in northernIraq outside theKurdistan Region from the federal Iraqi government.[34][35][36] A former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, Ali Ghaidan, accused former Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw.[37]
Friday 1 August 2014, ISIL attacked aPeshmerga post inZumar, 40 km northwest ofMosul, in the peshmerga-controlled zone of northern Iraq, and a nearby oil-winning facility and the nearbyMosul Dam, Iraq's largestdam and an important supplier of electricity and water.[35][38] The Peshmerga fought off IS, killing 100 IS fighters, according to Kurdish sources, but also losing 14 Peshmerga fighters.[35]
Sunday 3 August, IS, with heavy weaponry seized from the Iraqi federal army,[36][39] in the darkness of morning seized first the town of Zumar and thenSinjar (90 km southwest of Zumar),[38] and the surrounding Sinjar area.[40] IS routed from those towns the Kurdish peshmerga troops that since June more or less controlled the region.[38] A spokesman of citizens who fled from Sinjar said, that 250 peshmerga in Sinjar had withdrawn from Sinjar in the night, leaving the civilians unprotected.[41]
IS on 3 August also took control of the oil facility in theZumar subdistrict.[35][38] Later that day, IS also captured the town of Wana between Zumar and Mosul.[38] There were conflicting reports about whether theMosul Dam was still in Kurdish hands[38] or captured by IS.[42]
IS surrounded the village of Kocho near theSinjar Mountains, demanding its Yazidi residents to convert or die.[43]
IS on 6 August advanced up to 40 km southwest ofErbil, the capital of autonomous regionKurdistan Region.[39]
On 7 August, IS took control ofQaraqosh (or Bakhdida), the largestChristian town of Iraq, 30 km southeast ofMosul and 60 km west ofErbil,Karamlish, 5 km from Qaraqosh,Tal Keif (Tel Keppe),Batnaya, just north of Mosul, andBartella, just east of Mosul.[44][45]Kurdish forces had retreated from Qaraqosh and surrounding area, which caused civilians to flee in panic.[46] TheChaldaic archbishop ofKirkuk andSulaymaniyah, Joseph Thomas, stated that "all inhabitants" of those four cities were fleeing their town.[44]
IS also captured the strategic[47] town ofMakhmour in theBattle of Makhmour,[48] betweenMosul andKirkuk, 20 miles fromErbil.[47] There were conflicting remarks—in one newspaper—as to whether IS had 'seized' theMosul Dam or was making 'efforts to seize' it.[46] That week, IS also overran other towns in northwest Iraq, chasing KurdishPeshmerga troops away.[36][39]
At this time, the U.S. started airdropping food and water for the Yazidi refugees stranded in the Sinjar Mountains.[49]
On 8 August, the U.S. started to conduct airstrikes on IS, first west ofErbil to stop IS's advance on the city. Starting on 9 August, airstrikes also took place around theSinjar Mountains. By this time, IS had also seized theMosul Dam, 40 km northwest ofMosul on theTigris river.[36]
On 5 August, theUnited States began with directly supplying munitions to the Iraqi KurdishPeshmerga forces and, with Iraq's agreement, the shipment of weapons to the Kurds.[50]
Following the start of U.S. airstrikes on 8 August, between 9 and 13 August, the American air-strikes andefforts from Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish Kurds enabled the evacuation of 35,000 to 45,000 of the 50,000Yazidis stranded in theSinjar Mountains.
On 10 August, encouraged by American airstrikes, Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the strategic towns of Gwer andMakhmour, both about 20 miles fromErbil.[47] American fighter jets bombarded areas in Makhmour, forcing IS fighters to abandon their positions, and Kurdish Peshmerga together with KurdishPKK fighters and civilian volunteers from the area reclaimed the village.[48]
On 15 August, IS moved into the village Kocho, which they had held surrounded since 4 August, shot 80 Yazidi men dead with assault rifles, and abducted their wives and children.[43]
From 16 until 18 August, the U.S. conducted 35 airstrikes against IS positions at the strategically criticalMosul Dam. This allowed Kurdish and Iraqi forces to move swiftly and with cooperation towards Mosul Dam.[43][51]
On the morning of 17 August, Kurdish forces, supported by U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes, attacked the dam. They quickly captured the eastern part of the dam, but fighting continued.[52] By the evening, Kurdish and Iraqi forces had recaptured most of the facility, but were still in the process of removing mines and booby traps left by IS. U.S. warplanes destroyed or damaged 19 IS vehicles and one checkpoint during the battle.[53]
On 18 August, the U.S. president confirmed KurdishPeshmerga ground troops, with the help of Iraqi Special Forces, overran IS militants and reclaimed the Mosul Dam.[51]
On the morning of 19 August, Iraqi government troops and allied militiamen launched an operation to retake the city ofTikrit from IS. The military push started early in the morning from the south and southwest of the city, which lies around 160 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.[54][55]
However, by the afternoon, the offensive had been repelled by IS.[54] Also, the Iraqi military lost its positions in the southern area of the city it had captured a few weeks earlier.[56]
On 5 August, Iraqi military helicopters started dropping food and water for theYazidis in theSinjar Mountains.[57]
On 7 August, the U.S. also started airdropping food and water for the Yazidi refugees stranded in the Sinjar Mountains.[49]
On 10 August, theUnited Kingdom also began airdropping humanitarian aid in northern Iraq.[58]
The IS capture of Sinjar on 3 August was accompanied bya massacre of thousands of Yazidi men, the selling of women into slavery, and 200,000 civilians fleeing Sinjar, of whom 50,000 fled toMount Sinjar.
IS ordered theYazidi minority in the area to convert toIslam, payjizyah, or face death. This prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes[39] not only in Sinjar city but in many other villages; for example, 300 Yazidi families fled the villages of Koja, Hatimiya and Qaboshi.[36]
The UN reported in October 2014 that IS, "sweeping" through Iraqi territory inhabited by Yazidis in August, hadgunned down 5,000 Yazidi male civilians in a series of massacres and detained 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women to be sold as slaves or given to jihadists.[citation needed]
On 7 August, the UN reported that since 2 August 200,000 new refugees had been seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north of Iraq from IS.[59]
100,000Christians, 25% ofIraq's Christianity, fledBakhdida (Qaraqosh) and neighbouring villages and towns in theNineveh Governorate after IS's invasion on 7 August, leaving all their property behind, many of them fleeing toKurdistan Region.[60] According to local officials, this August IS advance nearly purged northwestern Iraq of most of itsChristian (Assyrian) population.[45]
Kurdistan's military forces … have taken over many of the northernmost positions abandoned by the national army, significantly expanding the zone of Kurdish control... "In most places, we aren't bothering them [ISIS], and they aren't bothering us – or the civilians," said Lt. Gen. Shaukur Zibari, a pesh merga commander.
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