High-level emergency declared as Sunnis and army clash

Clashes between Iraqi troops and Sunni militants west of Baghdad killed at least four children on Thursday as the United Nations announced its highest level of emergency for the Arab country's humanitarian crisis in the wake of the onslaught by the extremist Islamic State group.

Since their blitz offensive in June, the al-Qaida-breakaway group has overrun much of Iraq's north and west and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. The push has displaced members of the minority Christian and Yazidi religious communities and threatened Iraqi Kurds in the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.

The UN on Wednesday declared the situation in Iraq a "Level 3 Emergency" - a development that will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of the displaced, said UN special representative Nickolay Mladenov, pointing to the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe".

The Security Council also said it was backing a newly nominated premier-designate in the hope that he can swiftly form an "inclusive government" that could counter the insurgent threat, which has plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the US troop withdrawal in 2011.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled the Islamic State group's advance to take refuge in the remote desert Sinjar mountain range.

The US and Iraqi military have dropped food and water supplies, and in recent days Kurds from neighboring Syria battled to open a corridor to the mountain, allowing about 45,000 to escape.

The US said on Wednesday its assessment team found "far fewer" Yazidi refugees marooned on a northern Iraqi mountain than expected, making an evacuation mission less likely, after airstrikes pummeled besieging Islamic militants.

"The team has assessed that there are far fewer Yazidis on Mount Sinjar than previously feared, in part because of the success of humanitarian airdrops, airstrikes on (Islamic State) targets, the efforts of the (Kurdish forces) and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate from the mountain each night over the last several days," Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

The UN said it will provide increased support to those who have escaped Sinjar and to 400,000 other Iraqis who have fled since June to the Kurdish province of Dahuk. Others have fled to other parts of the Kurdish region or further south.

A total of 1.5 million have been displaced by the fighting since the insurgents captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in June and quickly swept over other parts of the country.

The US has been carrying out airstrikes in recent days against Islamic State fighters, helping fend back their advance on Kurdish regions.

Fighting erupted early on Thursday in the militant-held city of Fallujah, about 65 km west of Baghdad. The clashes on the city's northern outskirts killed four children, along with a woman and at least 10 militants, said Fallujah hospital director Ahmed Shami. He had no further details on clashes, beyond saying that four other children and another woman were wounded in the violence.

AP - AFP

(China Daily 08/15/2014 page11)