Are the Kurdish forces Iraq's best defence against ISIS?
We were terrified to face ISIS. They gave us few choices: convert to Islam, pay a protection tax, or, we were told, if we don't submit to Allah, we will be beheaded.An Iraqi Christian who has taken refuge in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, speaking to BBC News
U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes against ISIS and food drops for Iraqis trapped by the fighters. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)
This is just one of many chilling accounts coming from members of religious minorities in the region, including those from the Yazidi Christian community.
They have described children dying of thirst and women sold as slaves as ISIS - the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - has swept through parts of northern Iraq.
The Peshmerga are far more numerous and probably far better organized than ISIS.Peter Galbraith, former U.S. Ambassador and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
Washington's accouncement follows a round of U.S. airstrikes on ISIS positions and humanitarian airdrops to the tens-of-thousands of Yazidis who have been stranded on Sinjar mountain, west of Mosul.
To find out more about the situation, we were joined by three guests:
- Hermione Gee is a reporter. She was in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, at a border crossing with Syria.
- Donatella Rovera is Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Adviser. She was in northern Iraq.
- Peter Galbraith is a former U.S. Ambassador and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. He has been an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government. He has also had business and financial interests in Kurdistan in the past.
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This segment was produced by The Current's Catherine Kalbfleisch, Pacinthe Mattar and Leif Zapf-Gilje.