It\u2019s a pattern of territorial expansion that has now become familiar. After the Islamic State captured Sinjar on Sunday, came the executions. Then arrived the orders to convert or die, the flash of the movement\u2019s black flag, the fleeing of thousands \u201d\u201d and, finally, the jubilant and chilling images on social media.<\/p>\n
One showed a destroyed Shiite shrine, which had long sat in the ancient city of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq. Another depicted the executions of several blindfolded men. There was an image of two masked men who had climbed a tall building, enshrouded its edifice in a black Islamic State flag, and blasted a pistol into the air. Then there was a picture showing a masked jihadist hoisting a gun at the desk of the town\u2019s mayor \u201d\u201d a portrait of a famed Kurdish guerrilla leader looming behind.<\/p>\n
The armed movement, which has surged in wealth, manpower and resources in recent weeks, also just took the town of Wana on Sunday, according to The Washingon Post\u201d\u02dcs Loveday Morris. The Islamic State routed a once-proud Kurdish army and forced an exodus of Kurds the United Nations said numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Calling the situation a \u201chumanitarian tragedy,\u201d\u009d a top U.N. envoy to Iraq said in a statement that their expulsion was \u201cdire.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n