50,000 Yazidis in grave danger as Kurds, Islamic State clash near...

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Kurdish forces and Islamic State fighters are clashing in a town only 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in northern Iraq, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the ministry of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, also said military cooperation had been re-established with Baghdad in a bid to hit back against the Sunni militants who staged another dramatic push through the north over the weekend.

Yawar said 50,000 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic minority who fled the offensive and are hiding on a mountain near the town of Sinjar risked starving to death if they are not rescued in 24 hours.

When the Islamic State made another dramatic push through northern Iraq, many Iraqis fled their towns and villages before the Sunni militants notorious for beheadings arrived.

But the Yazidis of the town of Sinjar were especially terrified. The Islamic State, whose methods seem excessive even to al Qaeda, regards the minority ethnic group as "devil worshipers", making them prime candidates for the sword.

Tens of thousands fled the weekend assault on Sinjar and are now surrounded, according to witnesses and the United Nations, after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces who had held towns in the area for years.

The Islamic State captured three towns and a fifth oil field and reached Iraq's biggest dam, consolidating gains made after a lightning sweep through the north in June which poses the biggest threat to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Residents said about 50 people were killed after the Sunni militants, who have declared parts of Iraq and Syria they control a caliphate, arrived in Sinjar late on Saturday.

While 20 were killed trying to defend that town, it's not clear how the others died.

Many panicked Yazidis scrambled to find water and food for their children before climbing into their vehicles and rushing to surrounding mountains.

Some did not manage to escape.

The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.

Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

Now they are on the defensive again years after the fall of Saddam raised hopes of a brighter future for all.

The U.N. children's agency said families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children stranded in mountains. Sinjar district's estimated population of 308,000 includes about 150,000 children, said UNICEF.

REUTERS

50,000 Yazidis in grave danger as Kurds, Islamic State clash near Arbil