The Islamic State group has released at least 200 Yazidis after five months of captivity in Iraq, mostly elderly prisoners who may have been slowing the extremists down.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said Islamic State fighters reportedly killed up to 670 prisoners in Mosul and committed other abuses in Iraq that amount to crimes against humanity.

Islamic extremists in Iraq killed 80 men from a Yazidi village and abducted their wives and children, eyewitnesses said today, insisting the religious community is still at risk after a week of US and Iraqi airstrikes on the militants.

Airstrikes pounded the area around Iraq’s largest dam today in an effort to drive out militants who captured it earlier this month, as reports emerged of the massacre of some 80 members of the Yazidi religious minority by Islamic extremists.

The European Union yesterday forged a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis, allowing direct arms deliveries to Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni insurgents. Several EU nations pledged more humanitarian aid.

The European Union has sought to forge a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis.

Nouri Maliki has given up his post as Iraq’s prime minister to Haider Abadi, state television reported today – a move which could end a political deadlock that plunged Baghdad into uncertainty as the country fights a Sunni militant insurgency.

A volunteer said she had “never seen so many people scramble for survival” as she helped drop aid to the tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

Another 130 US troops have arrived in Iraq on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis facing thousands of displaced civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain.

Iraq’s new prime minister-designate yesterday won swift endorsements from uneasy mutual allies the US and Iran as he called on political leaders to end crippling feuds that have let jihadists seize a third of the country.

A Russian-built Iraqi military helicopter providing aid to people stranded on a mountain fleeing Islamic militants has crashed and killed the pilot after too many tried to climb aboard.

US air strikes continued in Iraq yesterday as US Central Command said drones and jet aircraft hit Islamic State armed trucks and mortar positions near Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region.

Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq’s human rights minister told Reuters yesterday.

Two US fighter jets have dropped bombs on Islamic militants towing artillery near American personnel in Iraq.

President Barack Obama has authorised US airstrikes in northern Iraq, warning they would be launched if needed to defend Americans from advancing Islamic militants and protect civilians under siege.

Four suicide bombers struck communities of a small Kurdish sect in north-western Iraq, killing at least 200 people and wounding 300 more, Iraqi military and local officials said.

Gunmen killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq after stopping their bus and separating followers of other faiths, as car bombings in the capital killed at least another 20 people.

Gunmen killed 23 members of the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq today, after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths, police said.