Report says Kurdish pesh merga left Yezidis to face wrath of Islamic State without a fight

A new report has said that the Kurdish militia known as the pesh merga refused to confront the Islamic State, choosing instead to flee and leave thousands of Yezidis at the mercy of IS.

Human Rights Watch published the report. It begins by recounting how the Yezidi village of Dohuk saw its numbers swell by the thousand as IS launched its genocidal assault on the beleaguered group, forcing anywhere from 60,000 to 70,000 to flee their homes and livelihoods.

Less than a week later, all that remained in the village were two families. Many fled for Christian controlled towns in the area, but as many as 40,000 sought shelter from IS in the Sinjar Mountains. Without food, shelter, or water many began to succumb to the elements and exhaustion brought about by having to be on the move continuously.

A Yezidi doctor interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that around 10-15 people were dying from these causes each day. He also said that two women had died during childbirth on the sunbaked, inhospitable mountaintops.

This horrific state of affairs was one of the major motivations behind the renewed U.S. military actions in Iraq. The U.S. military has conducted airstrikes and aid drops in an effort to sustain and protect the trapped Yezidis.

Other interviews suggested that the Kurdish pesh merga forces left the Yezidis to their own devices after only three or four hours of exchanging fire with IS.

When a Yezidi pesh merga fighter asked his commander why they were withdrawing, the commander said it was because they did not have orders to fight, according to Human Rights Watch.

The decimation of the Yezidis and indeed any group that is not Sunni Muslim, is a stated goal of IS, which claims to have established a caliphate that speaks for all true Muslims.