Thousands of Yazidis escaped from Mount Sinjar Sunday and returned safely to Iraq with the help of Kurdish forces, AFP reports. The Yazidis were trapped atop the mountain without food or water since fleeing extremists from the Islamic State who vowed to kill them should they descend.
The breakthrough came as the U.S. air dropped humanitarian supplies and carried out air strikes against Islamic State fighters, according to AFP.
“The Kurdish peshmerga forces have succeeded in making 30,000 Yazidis who fled Mount Sinjar, most of them women and children, cross into Syria and return to Kurdistan. Most of them crossed yesterday and today, this operation is ongoing and we really don’t know how many are still up there on the mountain,” a Kurdish official told AFP.
The official stated that although thousands have been rescued, thousands more remain on the mountain. Many children and elderly people have already died of dehydration.
