Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
| Second Northern Iraq offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The War in Iraq | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
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| Islamic State | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Haider al-Abadi Masoud Barzani Yonadam Kanna Haydar Shesho | Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
150,000 federal soldiers 190,000 Kurdish peshmerga | 20,000–31,500 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
1,652 killed 1,460 wounded |
3,112 killed 673 wounded | ||||||||
| 5,000 Yazidis killed 5,000–7,000 Yazidis abducted | |||||||||
Between 1 and 15 August 2014, the Islamic State (IS) expanded territory in northern Iraq under their control. In the region north and west from Mosul, the Islamic State conquered Zumar, Sinjar, Wana, Mosul Dam, Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Kocho, and in the region south and east of Mosul the towns Bakhdida, Karamlish, Bartella and Makhmour
The offensive resulted in 200,000 Yazidi civilians and 100,000 Assyrians driven from their homes, 5,000 Yazidi men massacred, 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women enslaved, and a foreign military intervention against the Islamic State.
After the withdrawal of Iraqi federal forces from advancing Islamic state troops from many cities, and later the withdrawal of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from many positions including the Qaraqosh and Sinjar, 50,000 of Sinjar's Yazidis took refuge in the adjacent Sinjar Mountains, where they lacked food, water, and other necessities. While providing help and aid to refugees, an Iraqi helicopter crashed, killing the pilot and injuring several passengers, including an Iraqi member of parliament and a photographer on assignment for TIME. 35,000 to 45,000 of them were evacuated within several weeks after the United States bombed IS positions, and the Iraqi armed forces, Kurdish People's Defence Forces, People's Protection Units, and Peshmerga forces opened a humanitarian corridor to enable their escape. Some IS-controlled territory was retaken; a subsequent Kurdish counter-attack recaptured the Mosul Dam and several other nearby towns.