the making by Sunni extremists from ISIS. ISIS fighters have besieged
the ethnic Turkmen Shiite town of Amerli in the north for two months,
and its fewer than 20,000 residents are without power and running out
of food, water and medical supplies. "The situation of the people in
Amerli is desperate and demands immediate action to prevent the
possible massacre of its citizens," said Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N.
secretary general's special representative for Iraq.
He said the suffering was "unspeakable" and demanded that the Shiite
majority Iraqi government "relieve the siege" on Amerli. The religious
group's head cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, pushed the
government to do the same Friday. And he called for airdrops "to ease
the suffering of its people, especially children and the weak."
About 5,000 families live in Amerli, which has been under seige for 70
days, according to Dr. Ali Albayati, head of the Turkmen Saving
Foundation. He toldCable News Network the town is running without
electricity, is out of medicine and can only turn to wells for water.
TheCNNreported that nearly three dozen villages surrounding Amerli are
already under ISIS control, Albayati said. The people of Amerli are
relying on the Iraqi government to take them out by helicopter or
support them with food drops, Albayati said. In the past 10 days, he
added, only one flight has delivered food.
Surrounded on four sides, the 17,400 residents have had to defend
themselves with only the help of local police, said Masrwr Aswad of
Iraq's Human Rights Commission. He said attempts to bring aid have
been hampered by the ISIS security threat, which makes flying
helicopters into the area extremely difficult and dangerous.
Their situation echoes the ordeal of Iraq's ethnic Yazidis, whose
plight after they were forced to flee into the mountains to escape
militants ISIS triggered U.S. aid drops and the first U.S. air strikes
against ISIS.
Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi praised the people of
Amerli for their "heroic defence" in the face of the ISIS siege and
called for them to be given support.
Their resistance represents "the beginning of the demise" of ISIS, he
said, saying it could encourage other communities also to stand up
against the militants.
ISIS has targeted Shiite, Christian and other minority communities as
it has advanced across Iraq.
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