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Fears of another Mount Sinjar grow after ISIS surrounds 18,000 Shi'ite Muslims in Iraqi town of Amerli
'They're fighting off death': Fears of another Mount Sinjar grow after ISIS surrounds 18,000 Shi'ite Muslims in Iraqi town of Amerli
- Senior Iraqi cleric expresses grave concern for Shi'ite Turkmen community
- Town faces starvation after food, water and medical supplies are cut off
- Doctor: 'It's a disaster. Children are eating only once every three days'
- Victims plead for West to intervene like it did to save Yazidis on Mt Sinjar
- One said: 'How much suffering must we see? We have been forgotten'
Fears are growing for thousands of Muslim Iraqis who have been surrounded by Islamic State militants in a chilling repeat of the siege of Mount Sinjar.
Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, today expressed grave concern for 18,000 Shi'ites in the town of Amerli after their food, water and medical supplies were cut off.
The Shi'ite Turkmen community say they have been living under siege for the last two months after the Sunni jihadists captured the surrounding towns and villages.
Dr Ali Albayati, who lives in Amerli, said: 'It is a humanitarian disaster - 20,000 people in Amerli are fighting off death.
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'It is a humanitarian disaster': Nearly 20,000
Shi'ite Muslim Iraqis face starvation in the town of Amerli after two
months of living under siege by ISIS militants. The shaded zone shows
ISIS-controlled areas
'There are children who are only eating once every three days.'
Dr Albayati and other members of the community are campaigning for Western forces to intervene like they did with the siege of Mount Sinjar, it was reported by the BBC.
Thousands of Yazidis were forced to flee to the mountain to escape maruading ISIS fighters, who executed hundreds of villagers and kidnapped women to become sex slaves.
They were eventually able to escape to refugee camps in neighboring Syria, Kurdistan and Turkey after U.S. air strikes and aid drops kept the extremist group at bay.
But there doesn't appear to be any similar effort planned for Amerli.
Sundus Abbas is the UK representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, a political party which represents the community.
On the run: Yazidi Iraqis cross into the
mountains of North Kurdistan after escaping ISIS from Mount Sinjar
following U.S. air strikes. The residents of Amerli are campaigning for a
similar rescue plan from the West
She said: 'How much suffering must we see and how many children have to die before the international community realises that the people of this town need help urgently.
'We have been completely forgotten.'
Nearly 160 people were killed in Amerli and a further 350 injured in an Al Qaeda truck bombing in 2007.
Meanwhile, officials in Iraq's Diyala province say militants have opened fire on worshippers at a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 40 people.
A police officer said that local militants broke into the mosque and opened fire in Imam Wais village, some 120 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
Homeless: Thousands of Yazidis were forced to
flee to the mountain to escape marauding ISIS fighters, who executed
hundreds of villagers and kidnapped women to become sex slaves
Another 35 people were wounded in the attack. Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.
Imam Wais remains in government control, although nearby areas have fallen to militants from the Islamic State group.
All officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to brief the media.
It came as Iraqi government forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters attempted to recapture two towns in the north from Islamic State militants, security sources said.
The Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. air power, took one district near the eastern entrance to Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast on Baghdad, the site of weeks of clashes, the sources said.
Iraqi troops supported by Iraqi fighter planes were advancing towards the nearby town of Saadiya, the security sources said. Both towns are near the Iranian border and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
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