Why IS is targeting Yazidis in Iraq

Sadly, the Iraq crisis has worsened since the withdrawal of US troops resulting in violent conflict with the central government as well as sectarian violence among Iraqi religious groups.Today the country is divided by the groups that control different sections of the land with the Shi’ites in the majority. The Shi’a-led government has dominated Iraqi […]

Sadly, the Iraq crisis has worsened since the withdrawal of US troops resulting in violent conflict with the central government as well as sectarian violence among Iraqi religious groups.
Today the country is divided by the groups that control different sections of the land with the Shi’ites in the majority. The Shi’a-led government has dominated Iraqi politics since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. On the other hand, the Kurds are an ethnic group with its President and autonomous region within the country known as Iraqi Kurdistan.
Despite having their own disputes with Baghdad, Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmarga are working with the help of US air strikes to fight the Islamic State and regain control of key territory. They recently clashed with Islamic State (IS) over Mosul dam; the largest hydro-electric dam in Iraq from ISIS militants.
The Islamic State (IS), also known and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is a jihadist group, now widely regarded as a terrorist organisation.
ISIS is known for its extreme and harsh interpretation of Sharia law and has a record of violence, which is directed at Shia Muslims, indigenous Assyrian (Chaldo-Assyrian), Syrian and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabakis and Mandeans in particular.
 The Islamic State has grown rapidly in strength and influence in Iraq and Syria due to its participation in the Syrian Civil War under its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Economic and political discrimination against Arab Iraqi Sunnis since the fall of Saddam and the deliberate inflammation of sectarian conflict between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis during the Iraq War by various actors are seen by analysts as the root cause of IS’s rise.
The post-invasion policies of the international coalition forces have also been mentioned. The coalition forces have been accused of enshrining identity politics as the key marker of Iraqi politics during the Iraq war.
 Sunni insurgents belonging to the Islamic State have seized control of several major Iraqi cities and some Kurdish territory, creating hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons amid reports of atrocities by IS fighters. But Sunni tribe leaders have refused to withdraw support for IS unless changes are made to the constitution. The resignation of Nouri al –Maliki is positive step toward dialogue for them.
The Yazidis are linked to the extreme Shi’a (Ghulat) sects. The main group of Yazidis live in the Jebel Sinjar Mountain and the Shaikhan district of northwest Iraq. They are called “Devil worshippers” by their Sunni neighbours who considered them heretics and have persecuted them over the centuries. Ethnically most Yazidis are Kurmanji speaking Kurds.
What makes the Yazidi still more vulnerable is the insular nature of their community. No one can convert to their religion; you have to be born into it and they only marry members of the same faith. The combination of being both religiously different and ethnically Kurdish, have made the Yazidis prime targets for IS militants.
The US has recently asserted that the systematic elimination of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State is genocide. The US military has since launched indefinite airstrikes targeting Islamic State fighters, equipment and installations, with humanitarian aid support from the UK and France, in order to protect the Yazizdis in northern Iraq. Their situation is dire.