Iraq?s Yazidi militia kills 22 Islamic State militants

0

A militia of Iraq’s minority Yezidis Thursday killed at least 22 fighters from the militant Islamic State group in clashes in the northern town of Sinjar, a member of the militia said.wpid-100tanksseizedfromprokadhafimilitiaministry.jpg

A force from the Yezidi group, Malik al-Tawus (King Peacock), clashed with Islamic State insurgents in Sinjar, west of the rebel-held city of Mosul, and killed 22 of them, militia spokesman Khudida al-Haskani, told independent Iraqi site Alsumaria News.

“Five Islamic State armoured vehicles were also burnt in the same operation.”

The Yezidi fighters suffered no casualties, according to al-Haskani.

The Islamic State – a radical Sunni group – has in recent weeks overrun areas inhabited by the Yezidis in northern Iraq, forcing them to flee.

The al-Qaeda splinter group reportedly killed dozens of the Yezidis after they refused to convert to Islam.

The militants consider the Yezidis, followers of a religion with pre-Islamic origins, to be infidels.

Malik al-Tawus is a self-defence group, believed to have been set up in 2007 to protect the Yezidi community in Iraq against attacks by radical Islamists.

The United States recently launched airstrikes against Islamic State’s targets in northern Iraq to block the group’s push towards the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Other Western countries have pledged to offer arms to the Kurdish forces fighting the jihadists.

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama vowed that his country would continue the campaign against the Islamic State, even after the group beheaded American reporter James Foley and threatened to do the same to another US journalist if the airstrikes did not end.

In June, the leader of the Islamic State declared himself to be the ruler of an Islamist caliphate in the parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria under the group’s control.

 

 

GNA
PDC

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here