Special to WorldTribune.com

Over the past week the terror group Islamic State [of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)] surged ahead on multiple fronts and scored numerous victories, leaving a wake of death and destruction. Hundreds of Yezidis have reportedly been killed in the city of Sinjar in northwest Iraq, and The Daily Star of Lebanon is reporting that Islamic State beheaded three tribesman who tried to fight them in Deir al-Zor province. …

A map created by The Long War Journal shows the full extent of the group’s reach and how many victories they have scored in recent weeks. They are clashing with Kurdish fighters in Hassakeh province in northeastern Syria, they are shelling the Syrian town of Yaaroubieh, and they have been attacking the town of Ras al-Ain on the Syrian border with Turkey.

According to Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana with the Christian Aid Program CAPNI, in an email dated Wednesday, August 6th, [ISIS] is now attacking Qaraqosh, a Christian city in northern Iraq …. At that time, Islamic State attacked the city, causing nearly all of the Christian population to flee. But the Kurdish Peshmerga forces fought them off, and an estimated 80 percent of the population returned. ISIS has now renewed their attack with mortars, and Christians and other local populations are fleeing for Erbil and other cities.

Reflecting the growing desperation of local leaders, on August 5th, Patriarch Louis Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, published a letter to Pope Francis stating that, on August 2nd, a mass migration took place from the villages of Telkev, Batnaya, and Telleskuf following the capture of the town of Sinjar and reports that 70 people had been massacred. He writes:“As for the church, she finds herself completely alone…This is an appeal from the bottom of the heart in the search for a solution that lies uniquely in the hands of the international community and above all with the superpowers.”

In spite of the heightened onslaught by Islamic State, the U.S. response remains largely rhetorical.

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  Christians under siege from ISIS appeal to Pope Francis; U.S. issues statement, LIFE, WorldTribune.com