In Kurdistan, we have had reason to be grateful for Western intervention. Last June, Daesh captured one third of Iraq overnight and then attacked us. What saved us was swift Western airstrikes, partly from British forces. Now we ask for your help again.
We have a border of 650 miles with Daesh. We have pushed them back and recently captured Sinjar – the scene of medieval rape, sexual enslavement and genocide against the Yezedis. Once again, Western airstrikes were vital. Our liberation of Sinjar cut the main supply road between Mosul and the Daesh ‘capital’ of Raqqa – but Daesh can use other roads. We cannot defeat them without international help.
We Kurds of Iraq long said we had no friends except the mountains. But 25 years of friendship with Britain and the West changed that. In 1991, Saddam Hussein’s gunships were driving Kurds to the mountains, where they froze to death; your no-fly zone saved many lives.
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