{"id":21277,"date":"2014-08-08T14:40:54","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T18:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=21277"},"modified":"2014-08-09T23:00:24","modified_gmt":"2014-08-10T03:00:24","slug":"sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinjar Was Only the Beginning\u2014by Matthew Barber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinjar Was Only the Beginning<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Matthewby Matthew Barber<\/p>\n

The calm is slowly unraveling in Kurdistan, and a growing, pervasive anxiety is beginning to afflict us all.<\/p>\n

We know that the fighting between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Islamic State jihadis continues to develop and move from place to place, but we\u2019re never exactly sure what\u2019s happening, where the fighting is occurring, or who has the upper hand. News\u2014both local and international\u2014has proved highly unreliable since this crisis began on Sunday.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not happening on your block, you probably don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Case of Shariya<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Yazidi town of Shariya, located a few miles south of Dohuk, is a \u201ccollective village\u201d created by Saddam Hussein during his Arabization program in the 1970s. Saddam bulldozed countless Yazidi towns until there was nothing left but gravel, and then forcibly moved their former inhabitants into collectives situated in locations that served his strategic interests. Shariya lies in the center of a valley ringed by hills, along the bases of which were originally a number of Yazidi villages. Saddam destroyed all of these villages (fearing that their proximity to the mountains would facilitate the harboring of Peshmerga fighters) and huddled all the villagers together in the center of the open plain between the mountains, where they would be much easier to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

\"A

A view of Shariya with hills behind\u2014photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shariya had a population of 17,000 until Sunday\u2019s crisis in Sinjar began compelling families to flee for the Dohuk governorate. By Wednesday, Shariya had a population of over 80,000 people.<\/p>\n

When I visited the community on Monday, it was already bursting at the seams, and it wasn\u2019t even close to the peak it reached on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The road leading into Shariya was a non-stop caravan of vehicles transporting more passengers than one would have thought possible: small trucks carrying dozens, packed into the truck beds like livestock; small cars with 3, 4, 5 people crammed into the trunks\u2014all having traveled like this for hours, or even overnight due to the bottlenecking effect that the sudden flight of more than 200,000 (perhaps closer to 300,000) had on the road from Sinjar.<\/p>\n

\"Yazidis

Yazidis flee Sinjar in overcrowded car, barefoot\u2014photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Yazidis

Yazidis flee Sinjar in overcrowded car, barefoot\u2014photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On our way to the village, a friend and I stopped and helped transport Yazidis from Sinjar that we noticed were just sitting on the side of the road, unsure how to reach Shariya.<\/p>\n

Inside the little town, thousands thronged about, trying to secure food, water, and shelter. I saw entire families sleeping on the floors of stores, offices, school buildings, a hospital-cum-motel, and the roofs of houses. The local residents worked like bees to coordinate aid to all of the families. The KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) sent in trucks loaded with food and water, and Muslim families from neighboring communities brought deliveries of food to distribute among the displaced Yazidis.<\/p>\n

People began to come up to me, wanting to talk about what had happened. Uncertainty and bewilderment clouded each face. (I was told only yesterday that no foreign journalists visited Shariya; aside from some observers with Amnesty International and HRW, I was the only foreigner to visit the community.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A man approached me and asked if I worked with the UN. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t, but I may write some reports about the situation here,\u201d I replied. \u201cCan I talk to you?\u201d he asked. \u201cCertainly,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you don\u2019t mind, I would like to tell you about what happened to me\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

As he finished his sentence, his voice broke and he burst into tears. Unable to suppress a brief wail, he buried his face in the crook of his arm and, seemingly ashamed, quickly walked a few paces away, put his face against the wall of a nearby building, and stood sobbing. I walked over, put my hand on his shoulder, and stood by silently while his grief found its much-needed release. When he had regained his composure, a Kurdish friend and I brought some chairs and sat to listen to his story.<\/p>\n

His name was Osman. He recounted how the day before, when IS jihadists attacked his home village in the Sinjar mountains, he was out working. \u201cMy two daughters were our relatives\u2019 home. I couldn\u2019t get to them and they left by a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the moment of crisis, when Peshmerga lines broke, people fled in all different directions. There was no time to coordinate an escape; in this way many families became separated from each other.<\/p>\n

Devastated at not knowing what transpired for his two girls, ages 3 and 7, Osman continued: \u201cI don\u2019t think they made it out of Sinjar; I think they are trapped there with the others. I don\u2019t know if they are alive or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

While fleeing, Osman saw bodies along the road that had been shot by IS fighters. People recounted seeing the corpses of women shot on the roadside, and one even described coming upon a stranded vehicle containing the dead bodies of a mother and her children, shot to death inside it.<\/p>\n

In my conversation with Osman, it struck me that I was encountering the pain of just one man among several hundred thousand new refugees in the Dohuk governorate, each with a unique story.<\/p>\n

When our conversation ended, Osman said, \u201cI ask the world for help, not for myself, but for those still stuck in Sinjar.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For a few years, the Yazidis of Shariya have been working to rebuild their nearby destroyed villages. The partially-completed houses are often just cement shells without windows or doors, but the residents of Shariya tried to settle the fleeing families inside of them, after the homes of Shariya itself were overwhelmed by the new guests.<\/p>\n

This is photo of one of the rebuilt villages in-progress, taken some time before this crisis. Many families have taken shelter inside such structures:<\/p>\n

\"A

A Yazidi village, previously destroyed by Saddam Hussein, in the process of being rebuilt\u2014Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To transport large numbers of people amidst this chaos, creative means was employed, such as carrying them in dump trucks:<\/p>\n

\"Yazidi

Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New Crisis<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I visited Shariya on Monday, it looked like this:<\/p>\n

\"Yazidi

Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Wednesday, volunteers had registered over 63,000 displaced individuals (more had arrived and not registered). This was just one of several primary destinations for Sinjar\u2019s refugees. I was informed by local relief coordinators that the needs of the refugees were beginning to exceed what the KRG and NGOs were able to provide.<\/p>\n

But when I returned yesterday, something unbelievable had happened. Shariya was almost a ghost town\u2026 as silent as the grave.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:

Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found a few lingering volunteers and asked, \u201cWhat happened here?\u201d They replied, \u201cEveryone fled this morning\u2014the refugees as well as<\/em> the local population of Shariya. Of approximately 80,000 people living here yesterday, only a couple hundred remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

This unbelievable second exodus is the result of a sense of panic that is washing across the Dohuk governorate. I had begun to sense it on Tuesday, while receiving panicked calls from Yazidis fleeing to Turkey. What initially prompted the stampede was the decision of many Yazidis in villages near Mosul\u2014close to the further limit of Peshmerga-controlled territory\u2014to leave and move northward, anticipating IS attacks in their area. Though IS hadn\u2019t broken through Kurdish lines and no Yazidi villages had been infiltrated, fighting was taking place (and continues until now) between the Peshmerga and IS near the Mosul Dam and along the \u201cborder\u201d with Mosul, and many Yazidis in those locations became fearful that what had just taken place in Sinjar might transpire in their areas as well.<\/p>\n

Witnessing the ethnic cleansing of Sinjar, and sensing that an intentional campaign of extermination was being directed against them, Yazidis no longer felt secure about Peshmerga defensive capabilities and decided not to take any chances.<\/p>\n

As waves of people from the southernmost villages began to arrive in villages a little closer to Dohuk (including Shariya), rumors began to circulate that Kurdish defenses had already been breached. I witnessed what verged upon mass hysteria as the local residents of villages near Dohuk decided to flee to Turkey. Those with passports and visas left; others tried to go as far north as possible, if they knew people who would take them in.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>This helpful map image, created several years ago by \u201cBluebird Research,\u201d shows the Yazidi villages of Sheikhan & Dohuk (in blue) and of Sinjar (in red\u2014\u201cSincar\u201d on the map). It is useful to see these communities in relation to each other, Erbil, Mosul, Dohuk, and the Syrian border. Access the map directly<\/a> to zoom and see the location of individual villages (including Shariya).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Families prioritized the departure of their female members, with some men staying behind in case the need to defend arose. A number of reports have emerged of IS fighters kidnapping large groups of women and carting them off in trucks. On Tuesday I encountered one woman in tears after her friend received a call that a kidnapped woman in Sinjar managed to make from inside one of the trucks. She was able to keep her phone with her and apprised her family of what was happening. Throughout the course of the Syrian conflict and its recent expansion into Iraq, accusations have frequently surfaced regarding women taken as a kind of religiously-sanctioned booty. Jihadists deny this, claiming women are taken prisoner as bargaining chips. Regardless, documentation exists of the occurrence, during the Iraq War period of al-Qaida violence targeting Yazidis, of Yazidi women being kidnapped, forced to convert, and forced into marriages with Muslims. That this precedent exists obviously makes the community very sensitive to the current situation.<\/p>\n

The panic was unsettling, but I couldn\u2019t confirm any reports of IS incursions into Kurdistan. But the Yazidi rationale was: We need to get out now before something bad happens and people storm the border, prompting the Turks to close it.<\/em> These fears were justified: the Turks have allegedly closed the border crossing near Zakho at 8:00 pm last night after receiving a huge influx of fleeing people.<\/p>\n

But few of the many thousands of refugees from Sinjar have the means to travel abroad.<\/p>\n

Last night, sitting in the quiet dark of Shariya, I asked community leaders where all the refugees\u2014plus the town\u2019s own population\u2014could have disappeared to. \u201cInto the mountains, north to Amadiya, to Zakho, to Erbil, to anywhere.\u201d Nobody really knows. But the humanitarian crises that engulfed Shariya for several days will merely be transplanted elsewhere. When the people were concentrated in one place, it was possible to coordinate relief efforts. Now that people are spreading across the governorate and beyond in panic, it will be even more difficult to meet the humanitarian need.<\/p>\n

\"Dohuk\"

USAID being distributed in Shariya, Kurdistan\u2014Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dohuk

Water bottles discarded in Shariya in the wake of Sinjar IDPs’ second flight, Aug 7, 2014\u2014Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Though you could hear a pin drop in Shariya last night, I had a nagging feeling that the exit of refugees wouldn\u2019t work. Where else would they be able to find the same kind of organized relief efforts that were performed in Shariya? Sure enough, beginning this morning, the same refugees that fled Shariya yesterday have started to stream back in. What we\u2019re seeing now is the frantic movement of people from one place to the next, running in circles like a panicked hiker lost in the woods.<\/p>\n

This fear is affecting more than the Yazidi community; many Christians are also trying to leave the country. Since the first day ISIS entered Mosul, refugee movement into Kurdistan has not ceased, and eventually all of Mosul\u2019s Christians fled here after being expelled. Compounding the tragedy for Christians, IS yesterday attacked<\/a> the Christian town of Qaraqosh, leading to another mass-displacement of many thousands. Add to this the displacement of Sinjar\u2019s population, and increased fighting in Tel Kayf near Mosul: It\u2019s understandable why I\u2019m hearing Christians echo one consistent sentiment: \u201cI don\u2019t want to live here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve followed terrorism-related issues for years, but this environment has schooled me anew in the realities of terror. The local contagion of fear demonstrates what a potent weapon terror is, when instrumentalized by an entity like IS.<\/p>\n

However, the current attitude of many Muslims here differs significantly from that of the minorities. In fact, it amazes me the degree to which separate communities here, living side by side, can exist in such strikingly different mental space. I have found that my own mental reality here is greatly determined by those with whom I spend time. After half an hour chatting with Muslims, I\u2019m comfortably convinced that Dohuk is safe, Erbil will remain impenetrable, Peshmerga are making advances by the hour, and overall there\u2019s nothing to worry about. After a half hour chatting with Yazidis or Christians, I find myself furtively glancing up and down the streets expecting IS jeeps to appear, planning my escape route out of the country, and generally anticipating the imminent end of the world.<\/p>\n

Today I spoke via telephone with Christians who are so terrified that they will not leave their houses to even move about Dohuk. I later went out and interacted with Muslims, who were nonchalantly conducting business as usual, and who were happy to discuss the day\u2019s news with me, emphasizing the imperviousness of our location.<\/p>\n

The divergence of perspectives between the communities is striking. How can Kurdish Muslims feel so at ease while Christians and Yazidis tremble with so much fear, the same place? It can be explained as the intimate knowledge of a kind of virulent personal enmity intent upon erasing one\u2019s kind from the planet. When you know that an enemy\u2019s sworn purpose is to kill you<\/em> and wipe out yours<\/em>\u2014not merely over profit or resources, but because you <\/em>are inherently wrong<\/em>\u2014a sense of vulnerability develops that others, who do not share the experience, cannot relate to.<\/p>\n

Though the safety of Dohuk has remained integral until now, it wouldn\u2019t be correct to frame minorities as those who are the most disconnected from reality. That Qaraqosh, Iraq\u2019s largest Christian city, was taken over by IS yesterday (or at least attacked, if not fully occupied\u2014conflicting reports), displacing another 50,000 – 100,000 Christians (reported numbers conflict), this time to Erbil, fully validates the kind of infectious trepidation that\u2019s afflicting the minorities. And yet, for some Muslims I\u2019ve spoken to in the city, it seems like a non-item. I don\u2019t mean there\u2019s a lack of compassion\u2014we\u2019ve seen plenty toward Yazidis, and perhaps these kinds of events are by now just too ordinary for some\u2014but this is a significant event. Qaraqosh is southeast of Mosul, inside Kurdish-controlled territory, in the direction of Erbil. As in Sinjar, IS again broke through Peshmerga defenses and displaced a minority. It\u2019s no surprise that Christians and Yazidis can now be frequently heard saying \u201cI no longer have confidence in the Peshmerga.\u201d Not only is that kind of breach scary and serious, the number of new refugees (going with the higher estimate) is close to half of those displaced in Sinjar. For residents to shrug this off as irrelevant to Dohuk is to disengage from reality to at least the same degree as those running wild with exaggerated fears.<\/p>\n

\"Final

Final stragglers flee Shariya at night, Aug 7, 2014\u2014Photo: Matthew Barber\/Syria Comment<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Comes Next?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At dusk in Shariya last night, while discussing rumors that Obama would take action to save those stranded for days without food or water in Sinjar, I glimpsed two military helicopters some distance away flying south. When I pointed them out to my Kurdish companions, there were reactions of elation. \u201cThey are taking supplies to Sinjar! And maybe bombing Da\u2019esh too!\u201d It\u2019s interesting to be in the Middle East and witness a joyful reaction to the prospect of US action\u2014not a typical experience.<\/p>\n

But this morning, hopes do not seem to have improved among Yazidis. Rather, many reports have apparently come in overnight of people dying in large numbers in Sinjar. The entrapment of the populations there, without foodstuffs or hydration, began on Sunday, and it is no surprise that many would be dying four days later. Though action on the 5th<\/sup> day was welcomed, some fear it is too late, and I am hearing expressions of anger toward Obama from some Yazidis. There may have been some supply drops earlier, but it is not clear how many people were able to be reached with aid.<\/p>\n

Others are encouraged by Obama\u2019s decision to carry out airstrikes against jihadists attempting to invade Kurdish-controlled areas, though reports have varied\u2014and conflicted\u2014about exactly what places have seen US airstrikes today, aside from Sinjar.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whatever progress the airstrikes in Sinjar can accomplish, the battle has heated up in areas north of Mosul, east of Mosul, the area between Mosul and Erbil, and areas between Erbil and Kirkuk, in addition to ongoing fighting over the dam.<\/p>\n

The problem for all of us here is the inability to receive timely, accurate notification about developments in the fighting, even within areas not too far from us. The poor quality of reporting (by both Kurdish and international media) in this situation has been surprising. On Monday, all major international media were reporting that the Mosul Dam had been taken by IS. I sat with a friend who called dam employees\u2014working on site at the dam\u2014who told us \u201cWe are here, working at the dam right now, and the Peshmerga are in control of it.\u201d It never fell out of Peshmerga hands, even though IS has been battling them in the town of Wana, 7km south of the dam, to gain control of it. Yesterday morning, new reports that the dam had fallen (presented as a \u201cfirst-time event,\u201d not acknowledging the same reporting a few days earlier) began appearing again. We called again and were told that the dam was under Peshmerga control. Today there are\u2014once again\u2014fresh reports that IS has taken the Mosul Dam. I haven\u2019t called anyone yet; maybe they finally did take it after all. Local people are as in the dark as anyone else, unless they can make a call to someone at the locus of activity.<\/p>\n

I will venture to say that it is very unlikely that IS has the dam.<\/p>\n

Compounding the problem is that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been blocked in Kurdistan since yesterday afternoon. The sense is that this was a measure to prevent Peshmerga positions from being given away ahead of a major military response to IS, presumably underway now with the aid of the American air force. Unfortunately, this makes it very difficult for us to know what is happening here, because we cannot share information with each other easily, nor can we inform people outside as to what is taking place. Though unable to tweet since yesterday, this post will\u2014hopefully\u2014convey a sense of what the atmosphere in the Dohuk governorate has been like.<\/p>\n

How good or bad is the situation? As bad as the minorities fear or as good as the majority maintains? The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. One thing is certain: Sunday\u2019s events in Sinjar now mark the beginning of an unfolding saga, leading toward an unknown conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinjar Was Only the Beginning \u00a0 by Matthew Barber The calm is slowly unraveling in Kurdistan, and a growing, pervasive anxiety is beginning to afflict us all. We know that the fighting between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Islamic State jihadis continues to develop and move from place to place, but we\u2019re never exactly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":21281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,30,256,120,321],"tags":[270,325,219,156,456,316,320,318,323,326,462,477,322],"class_list":["post-21277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-iraq","category-isis","category-matthew-barber","category-yazidis","tag-christians","tag-dohuk","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-iraq","tag-is","tag-kurdistan","tag-mosul","tag-sinjar","tag-usaid","tag-weapons","tag-yazidis","tag-yezidis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSinjar Was Only the Beginning\u2014by Matthew Barber - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yazidis from Sinjar flee a second time, fearing that their new refuge is no longer safe; Peshmerga fight with IS deepens; fear becomes pervasive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sinjar Was Only the Beginning\u2014by Matthew Barber - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yazidis from Sinjar flee a second time, fearing that their new refuge is no longer safe; Peshmerga fight with IS deepens; fear becomes pervasive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-08T18:40:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-10T03:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yazidi-kids-flee-in-trunk-of-car.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1965\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Barber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Matthew__Barber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@joshua_landis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Barber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"17 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/\",\"name\":\"Sinjar Was Only the Beginning\u2014by Matthew Barber - Syria Comment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/sinjar-beginning-matthew-barber\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yazidi-kids-flee-in-trunk-of-car.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-08T18:40:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-10T03:00:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2905aac6c55cbf3a9dede19e41b94c7e\"},\"description\":\"Yazidis from Sinjar flee a second time, fearing that their new refuge is no longer safe; 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