Turkish Airstrikes Hammer Yezidi Territory in Northern Iraq // FAI ONLINE

A Turkish military jet taking off (Getty).

The Turkish military announced “Operation: Claw-Eagle” yesterday, as dozens of Turkish warplanes conducted over 80 airstrikes against alleged Kurdish PKK militia positions in Iraqi Kurdistan and around Mount Sinjar, the ancestral homeland of the Yezidi people near the Syrian border in Iraq. The Turkish military claimed success in the widespread operation, stating that the strikes were, “bringing the caves down on the terrorists' heads." The PKK announced that they had suffered no casualties as a result of the strikes. It is unclear why Turkey decided to launch the operation, as the PKK militia in Northern Iraq have not used their bases in the rugged mountainous region to attack Turkey in recent years.

Eagle-Claw is the biggest military operation around Mount Sinjar since that area was captured by ISIS in 2014. The Yezidi people suffered terribly that year under ISIS occupation, during which time at least 2,100 Yezidis were mass murdered and over 10,000 abducted, To this day, over 3,000 Yezidis are still missing, mostly women who were sold into sexual slavery. ISIS was eventually driven from the Sinjar area and the surrounding Nineveh Plains in 2015 by a coalition that included the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the PKK. The latter deployed from Southeast Turkey to Northern Iraq, where they established a base of operation in ongoing defense of the Yezidi population, in case of a jihadist resurgence. Since then, the Turkish military has intermittently struck the area with warplanes and artillery, including Yezidi refugee camps, making it impossible for a people ravaged by attempted genocide to recover.

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The Arab League denounced the unprovoked offensive today, stating that Turkish military ventures, “whether in Syria, Libya, or Iraq, have become a source of concern, rejection, and disapproval from Arab countries.” The Iraqi parliament also condemned the operation and sent the ministers of defense and the interior to Mosul, near Sinjar, to discuss the situation with local authorities.

We ask our global family to join us with intercessory prayer for the Kurdish and Yezidi people in Northern Iraq. We pray for the terroristic actions of the Turkish regime to be restrained in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cyprus, and within its own borders, and for divine wisdom and courage to be granted to world leaders to confront the hegemony of Turkish president Erdogan, who continues to persecute and dispossess the minority populations under his authority, and who has repeatedly signaled his intention to reassert his brand of Turkish Islamism throughout the Muslim world. We pray for a divine hedge to be placed around the Yezidi people in Syria and Iraq, and for a door of opportunity to be opened to FAI field workers and other ministries in the area to bring healing, comfort and Good News of Great Joy to Sinjar.

Maranatha.