Obama Authorizes Air Strikes In Iraq + Isis Group Threathens Christians To Convert To Islam Else They Get Killed

In a late-night statement from the White House that was televised yesterday August 7th, US President Barack Obama authorized US airstrikes in Northern Iraq to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by ISIS, the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State. 

ISIS has been brutally hunting and slaughtering members of the ancient Yazidi religion, a faith derived from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient set of beliefs. 

After the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga fighters, the ISIS group seized Qaraqush, Iraq's largest Christian town, and several others near Mosul. As a result of this, thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled their homes into the desert. (Warning: Graphic pictures after the cut)

Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the surrounding mountains which isn’t any better or safe as they face another killer: searing desert heat and the constant threat of starvation.

Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C.

Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the bodies of dozens of young children apparently killed by ISIS militants, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidi men.