Iraqi forces launch offensive to break Islamic State's siege of Amerli

Aug. 30, 2014 11:48 AM PT

Reporting from Kirkuk, Iraq — Iraqi forces launched a ground operation Saturday to break a nearly three-month siege of a town encircled by Islamic State extremists and in urgent need of supplies, residents said.

Iraqi army soldiers, Kurdish forces and pro-government Shiite Muslim militiamen pushed toward the town of Amerli from the north, east and west, with residents reporting loud firing that some described as tank rounds.

The offensive, which had been predicted for days, cheered residents of Amerli, a farming community 100 miles north of Baghdad with a population of 15,000, mainly ethnic Turkmen Shiites. Surrounded by Sunni Arab militants since June, its water and electricity have been cut off, food and medical supplies are running low and at least 10 people have died because of fighting or illness, residents said.

“This is good news for us,” Nihad Bayati, an engineer and father of seven, said by telephone from Amerli. “We have been fighting as long as we can but we need help.”

United Nations officials have warned of a “massacre” in Amerli because the Islamic State extremists view Shiites as apostates and have brutally targeted Iraq’s ethnic Turkmen minority. Amerli police officers and volunteer fighters have been defending themselves with light weapons against near-daily mortar rounds and sniper attacks.

The United States has been under growing pressure to aid Amerli, especially after carrying out airstrikes this month to help Iraqi Yazidis, a small religious sect, escape a remote northern mountain where they had sought refuge from advancing militants. Some Shiite politicians and activists accused the White House of bias in favor of the Yazidis, non-Muslim members of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish minority, which has long enjoyed good relations with Washington.

“We want to see the U.S. government acting for justice,” said Ali Bayati, a doctor in Amerli, many of whose residents are members of the Bayati tribe. “The Yazidis are like us. America should deal with Arabs, Turkmens, Christians, all Iraqis in the same manner.”

A day earlier, as Iraqi forces massed in the nearby town of Tuz Khurmatu, activists reported an increase in airstrikes that some said came from U.S. warplanes. The Pentagon did not confirm any operation in Amerli, saying only that it had carried additional airstrikes near the northern Mosul dam, where it has targeted Islamic State forces for two weeks.

On Saturday, Amerli residents reported that a C-130 cargo aircraft delivered emergency food, including biscuits, baby formula, fruit drinks and dates, in several crates that were dropped by parachute. Previous relief deliveries by Iraqi forces have come via helicopters that landed in town, causing some to speculate that the United States had carried out the airdrop.

U.S. Defense Department officials did not comment on the reports.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation in Amerli and the rest of Iraq,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “As a matter of policy, we will not speculate on or discuss potential or future operations.”

The plight of Iraq’s Turkmen minority, which makes up about 4% of the population, has been overshadowed by the militants’ attacks on Yazidis, Christians and other groups. After Islamic State fighters overran the northern city of Mosul in early June, half a million Turkmens are believed to have fled their homes.

Some who didn’t escape were killed, their bodies strung from electrical wires, according to activists.

After the militants seized the northern city of Mosul in early June, they moved to within half a mile of Amerli but could not get closer. Surrounded by mostly Sunni Arab villages, many Amerli residents keep weapons at home for protection, particularly since a 2007 bombing by Sunni extremists killed 130 people.

Local police officers, the only trained security force in town, have set up a perimeter, backed by volunteer fighters and gunmen posted on rooftops.

The Iraqi military has sent helicopters into Amerli a few times each week to deliver food, ammunition and weapons such as Kalashnikov rifles. But residents have said the supplies were insufficient. Some developed heat-related illnesses in the extreme temperatures and stomach and kidney ailments from drinking untreated water.

Residents said the Iraqi forces’ limited capabilities have cost lives. A few nights earlier, Ali Bayati said, a volunteer fighter was shot in the head by a militant sniper. Bayati called for a helicopter to evacuate the man but Iraqi military officials said the aircraft couldn’t land at night. The man died of his injuries the next morning.

U.S. officials have said for days that they were contemplating a military mission in Amerli, but the urgency of the effort appeared to dissipate as Iraqi forces prepared their operation. They were bolstered by powerful Shiite militias led by the Badr Organization, an Iranian-backed group, and others that rushed to the area after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, called a week ago for lifting the siege.

Analysts said the Obama administration probably was wary of joining an operation involving Shiite militias, whose resurgence in recent months as an auxiliary force for Baghdad deeply worries U.S. officials. Unlike the operations involving Yazidis or at the Mosul dam, Amerli’s location in a multi-sectarian area less than 70 miles from the Iranian border makes it far more sensitive for Baghdad.

“It could be a test case of how the U.S. could get involved farther south in Iraq, in an environment where there’s more of a presence of Shiite forces,” said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert and Lafer fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is harder than Mosul dam.”

Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan in Washington contributed to this report.

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