Over 4,000 of Iraq’s Kurdish Yazidi community are at risk of death, after being driven onto a mountaintop for fear of being massacred by the radical Islamic State (the moment formerly known as ISIS).
The Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion, have fled to Mount Sinjar from their nearby villages and are afraid to return as they could be slaughtered by the Islamic extremists who control Northern Iraq.
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They have no fresh water and are on the mountain in sweltering summer heat, and have begun to die of thirst despite humanitarian agencies trying to drop bottled water on the mountainside.
Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil told CNN yesterday that 70 children had already died of thirst, and more than 500 men had been slaughtered.