What caused the War in Iraq?

ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria) originated as a terrorist group in Iraq that pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. In June 2014, the group proclaimed itself a worldwide caliphate and began referring to itself as the Islamic State. As a caliphate, it claimed religious, political, and military authority over all Muslims worldwide. Its adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a worldwide caliphate were widely criticized, with the UN, various governments and mainstream Muslim groups vehemently rejecting the idea of its statehood.

Rejected or not, they managed to seize large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, killing or taking captives thousands of Yezidis, Kurds, and anyone else that refused to bow to their rule. Millions were forced to flee for their lives, creating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis to date.

On August 3rd, 2014 ISIS soldiers attacked the Sinjar region of Northern Iraq home to approximately 250,000 people, many of them Yezidis. Yezidis are a peaceful minority group of about 800,000. Many of them are shepherds and farmers who lived side-by-side with their Muslim and Arab neighbors. Thousands of them were forced to flee on foot, taking refuge in the Sinjar Mountains were they languished for eight days before aid was able to get to them. The ones that didn’t manage to escape were rounded up like animals, the men and older boys were shot or buried alive. The women and girls were sold as sex slaves and the young boys were taken to ISIS training camps to be indoctrinated with Islamic propaganda and trained as fighters. Today, thousands are still missing.

After escaping from the mountain, thousands of them ended up in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. Here they were put into huge refugee camps, empty houses and wherever they could find shelter. Today there are more than 1.5 million refugees in Kurdistan.

We were in Kurdistan, Iraq from 2014 – 2020 and are currently working towards closing this field down due to more urgent needs in other areas of the world. Seeds have been planted and we have seen God’s mighty hand at work! Let’s be faithful in praying for Iraq.