I am sending this message out to every contact I have in the media and in journalism to inform you that on Friday (August 22nd) a group of the Iraqi Yezidi minority group will be staging a protest in front of the United Nations building in New York City. The protest is in reaction to the ongoing humanitarian disaster that I’m sure all of you have seen unfolding in Iraq. The Yezidi people have been slaughtered by ISIS in and around their homes in Sinjar while the rest have been turned into refugees.

In the interest of full disclosure, some of these Yezidi protestors are friends of mine who I worked with when I was a Special Forces Sergeant in Iraq. Some of them have been able to attain visas for themselves and their family to come and live in the United States but many members of their families are dying back in Iraq. The stories told about what ISIS is doing to these civilians would make your blood run cold. I’m writing this letter and blasting it out in hopes that some members of the press will see fit to cover the protest and shed some light on the atrocities happening to the Yezidi people in Iraq.

Thanks for your time and if you have any questions please feel free to ask. I’m working on getting the exact time of the protest and approximately how many people will be there.

– Jack Murphy, Editor, SOFREP

(Featured Image Courtesy: Middle East Eye)