Sunday, August 10, 2014

First Western Reporter Sees Widespread Death Among Trapped Iraqi Yazidis. Is Told That 70 Per Cent Are Dead Or Will Be Dead. U.S. Aid Has Been 'Useless'



Iraq Crisis: 'It Is Death Valley. Up To 70 Per Cent Of Them Are Dead' -- The Telegraph

On board Iraqi army helicopter delivering aid to the trapped Yazidis, Jonathan Krohn sees a hellish sight.

Mount Sinjar stinks of death. The few Yazidis who have managed to escape its clutches can tell you why. “Dogs were eating the bodies of the dead,” said Haji Khedev Haydev, 65, who ran through the lines of Islamic State jihadists surrounding it.

On Sunday night, I became the first western journalist to reach the mountains where tens of thousands of Yazidis, a previously obscure Middle Eastern sect, have been taking refuge from the Islamic State forces that seized their largest town, Sinjar.

I was on board an Iraqi Army helicopter, and watched as hundreds of refugees ran towards it to receive one of the few deliveries of aid to make it to the mountain. The helicopter dropped water and food from its open gun bays to them as they waited below. General Ahmed Ithwany, who led the mission, told me: “It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead.”

Read more ....

My Comment: The part of this report that caught my eye was this ....

.... However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.

The White House and the U.S. media have been trumpeting for the past two days the vital role that U.S. aid has been in helping these refugees .... but it appears that this aid has been for nothing.

5 comments:

D.Plowman said...

If it's true about the first AID being dropped without parachutes, consistently, and if it can be verified, then only one thing can be established from that: that it was done deliberately.

If it was done deliberately, then there was indeed an attempt to 'lie' under the false pretense of delivering essential AID.

War News Updates Editor said...

I concur D. Plowman. I find it inconceivable that they would drop aid without parachutes. But then again .... who knows what is happening there.

James said...

No one cares about these poor people. They are viewed as only possible "liabilities" that have to be contained by people who could do something. This is the real world and it can be as cruel as can be imagined.

War News Updates Editor said...

Ditto James. Even with all of our problems we are so lucky in the West when compared to the rest of the world.

Nicholas Darkwater said...

As much as my sympathies are with the Yahzidis, it is inconceivable that we would drop supplies from 15K ft without parachutes. This story needs clarification and evidence.