On Aug. 21, banners were raised in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, pleading for the city of Amerli to be saved from the Islamic State (IS) blockade that has been ongoing for the past 70 days. The youths, activists and intellectuals staged a two-day demonstration to attract the attention of the international community and the Iraqi government to the suffering of the region to the north of Baghdad. Around 20,000 Iraqis from the Turkmen Shiite minority live in Amerli, where the IS blockade affects 36 surrounding villages.

One grim female protester raised a banner reading, “Did the military experts fail to put plans to free our cities where barbarian mobs are wreaking havoc?”

The UN warned that if the IS militants enter the Shiite regions, they will massacre the inhabitants. However, the states that helped the Yazidi minority in Sinjar escape the terror organization have turned a deaf ear to the warnings.

The voice of poet Ahmad Mohammad Fares, who lives in Amerli, sounded tired while he talked about the blockade and the suffering of the people there. Fares told Al-Monitor, “The blockade has drained us. Mortars are constantly falling over the city, and the food is running out.”