Iraq tables talks on new PM

Iraq's search for a new unity government and prime minister looked set to continue on Tuesday. According to Iraqi media reports, parliamentarians in Baghdad have delayed a potential vote on a new prime minister until at least Thursday, following about two hours of talks.

Incumbent Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite and leader of the most powerful single party in parliament, has said he intends to serve a third four-year term. However, this has met resistance from the Sunni and Kurdish political groups within Maliki's own coalition.

Tuesday's debate was overshadowed by UN reports on refugees fleeing the Sinjar region, the most recent site of territorial gains for fighters from the "Islamic State" (IS), the organization formerly known as ISIS. On Sunday, the group seized several towns and an oil field, forcing Kurdish troops into retreat.

Yazidi flee IS

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that thousands of people, many of them Yazidi - a religious sect that's common in the area - had left their homes. Yazidi parliamentarian Vian Dakheel, of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, issued an impassioned plea in Baghdad on Tuesday.

"In the name of humanity, I call upon all of you to save us. Save us," she shouted. "Our families have been slaughtered as all other Iraqis were slaughtered."

According to OCHA, many of the people who fled had gone to a nearby mountain, Jebel Sinjar.

"The exact number of displaced people on Jebel Sinar is unknown; however reports indicate that some 35-50,000 people are displaced in nine locations, reportedly surrounded by ISIS armed elements," OCHA reported in a statement. "There are reports, to be verified, of children already dying for lack of water and other assistance among those trapped."

OCHA also reported that Iraq's army was assessing the possibility of humanitarian aid drops over the mountain. On Monday, Baghdad pledged air support for Kurdish peshmerga forces opposing IS fighters in the north of the country. Iraq's Kurdish territory has partial autonomy from Baghdad, but IS gains have begun to incur on the minority's land. Many Yazidi refugess (including those pictured at the top of the article) instead fled north, into Iraqi Kurdistan.

Over the weekend, the mainly Sunni IS ordered the Yazidi community to either convert to Islam, pay a fine, flee their homes or face death. The group had issued similar demands for Christians in the areas it controls, while destroying certain mosques and shrines in the city of Mosul, on the grounds that they contradicted IS's version of Islam. Mosul, Iraq's second-most populous city, is the largest settlement under IS control.

msh/mkg (AP, dpa, Reuters)