page_title: Sinjar massacre
section_title: NGOs
hierarchical_section_title: Sinjar massacre / International responses / NGOs
caption_attribution_description: Defend International and its supporters provided humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees in Kurdistan region, Iraq. Thanks to our donors!
context_page_description: The Sinjar massacre marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, the killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidi men, women and children. It took place in August 2014 in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate and was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The massacre began with ISIL attacking and capturing Sinjar and neighboring towns on 3 August, during its Northern Iraq offensive.
  On 8 August 2014, the United States reacted with airstrikes on ISIL units and convoys in northern Iraq, which led to a military intervention from several countries against ISIL.
  On 17 December 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga, PKK and YPG forces started the December 2014 Sinjar offensive with the support of US airstrikes. This offensive broke ISIL's troop transport routes and supply lines between Mosul and Raqqa, the largest cities in the Islamic State at the time.
  According to Noori Abdulrahman, the head of the Department of Coordination and Follow-up of the Kurdistan Regional Government, ISIL wanted to push most of the Kurds out of strategic areas and bring in Arabs, obedient to ISIL.
context_section_description: Defend International launched a worldwide campaign entitled "Save The Yazidis: The World Has To Act Now" to raise awareness about the tragedy of the Yazidis in Sinjar. DI president Widad Akrawi dedicated her 2014 International Pfeffer Peace Award "to all victims of persecution, particularly the Yazidis, Christians, and all residents of Kobanê region."
  The British Stop the War Coalition opposed the intervention on Sinjar, denouncing reports of a humanitarian crisis as "largely mythical".
caption: Defend International reaching out to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan, December 2014
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