ISIS continues to have success in Iraq. -CNN

ISIS has taken control of Iraq's largest hydroelectric damn in a string of victories against the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. -CNN Peshmerga fighters withdrew from the towns of Zumar and Wana after being cut off from support. The recent victories in the north has created a humanitarian disaster for civilians fleeing the city. Many of the refugees are of the Yezidi sect, considered to be heretics and infidels by ISIS.

My Comment:
CNN is burying the lead in this one. The fact that ISIS took the damn on the Tigris river is the most important part of this story. ISIS now has secured a power supply in Mosul which will tighten their stranglehold on the city. Another fear is that they will open the damn on the Tigris and cause catastrophic flooding throughout Iraq, but most importantly Baghdad. This is a major victory for ISIS.

I was kind of surprised to hear that the victories were against the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. Until this point ISIS had mostly left them alone and when they did fight they lost. That's not true anymore. That's very bad news for everyone involved because the Peshmerga fighters were the most competent non-radical fighters left in Iraq. Kurdistan has been the number one destination for Christian and other religious minorities like the Yezidi who are fleeing the violence. Should the Kurds start to falter there will be no where left for these people to go.