'ISIS want to impregnate Yazidi women and smash our blond bloodline': Fears grow for the 300 women kidnapped from Sinjar



Jihadist troops bolster forces further south in apparent bid to broaden front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters

Expert tells MailOnline: ' IS is coming under pressure and they need to show results to fuel their media machine'

Comes after air strikes and Kurdish forces helped to break siege of Mount Sinjar that allowed 45,000 Yazidis to flee

U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel said mission to rescue others stranded on mountain was now 'far less likely'

UN declares highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis as number of displaced Iraqis tops 1.5million






Fears are growing for the 300 Yazidi women reportedly kidnapped by Islamic State fighters last week amid claims they would be used to bear children to break up the ancient sect's bloodline.

The minority group is originally Aryan and has retained a fairer complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes by only marrying within the community.

But in a furious bid to convert all non-Muslims, ISIS jihadists have vowed to impregnate the hostages.



Some 45,000 Yazidi refugees have finally been able to escape from Mount Sinjar after U.S. air strikes and a fightback by Kurdish forces appeared to have broken the ten-day siege by Islamic militants.

However, as the women remain trapped, Kurdish militia are calling on Western forces to give them arms rather than plotting rescue missions.



Addressing the kidnapping, Adnan Kochar, chairman of the Kurdish Cultural Centre in London, told MailOnline: 'The Kurds and Yazidis are originally Aryans. But because the Yazidis are such a closed community they have retained a fairer complexion, blonder hair and bluer eyes. They don't marry non-Yazidis.



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Humble: A child lies in a makeshift cot in a refugee camp at Silopi district after the family attacks by ISIS militants in the Sinjar region

A mother tries to cool her tiny baby down in the shade of a van as she fans him in the midday heat

A U.S. special forces team which flew over the mountain found that only around 5,000 Iraqi refugees remained, tens of thousands fewer than previously thought.

Some Yazidis even indicated to American forces that they saw the mountain as a safe haven and were reluctant to leave, it was reported by the New York Times.

U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel said it was now 'far less likely' America would undertake a rescue mission.

Desperate for a new life: Yazidis hold banners pleading to leave the country for good during a demonstration in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province

Up in arms: Yazidis demanded protection and evacuation from Iraq to safer areas such as Europe and the United States The declaration of a 'Level 3 Emergency' will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to help the displaced, said special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to the 'scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe'. Mr Hagel said air drops of food and water had sustained the refugees and air strikes on Islamic State (IS) group militants had allowed many to escape. British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday revealed Britain had been working on 'detailed plans' to airlift up to 30,000 desperate Yazidis from the mountain. But Government sources told MailOnline that the number of people left stranded was now in the 'low thousands'. Britain will now concentrate on getting vital supplies like water and food to up to a million Iraqis that have been driven from their homes.



Despair: A Yazidi family mourns the death of a 40-year-old relative who died from ill health while walking from Sinjar mountains to the border crossing

Yazidis take refuge among the rubbish at the Fishkhabour border crossing. Some 1.5m Iraqis have been displaced by the fighting since the Islamic State uprising in June It was confirmed last night that SAS and SBS troops are already on the ground, supported by specialist signals and reconnaissance forces.

Since June, Iraq has been facing an onslaught by the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants across much of the country's north and west. In recent weeks, the crisis has worsened as the militant fighters swept through new towns in the north, displacing members of the minority Christian and Yazidi religious communities and threatening the neighbouring Iraqi Kurdish autonomy zone. Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled the advance to take refuge in the remote desert Sinjar mountain range. The U.S. and Iraqi military have dropped food and water supplies and in recent days Kurds from neighbouring Syria battled to open a corridor to the mountain, allowing some 45,000 to escape. The UN said it would provide increased support to those who 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.

Forced into nomadic lifestyles: A graphic showing the movement of displaced Iraqis, in large part as a result of the Islamic State uprising Exhausted: Other Yazidis have fled to refugee camps like this one in Silopi district, in Sirnak, Turkey after trekking for hundreds of kilometres to safety Refugee: The swelling number of displaced Iraqis has forced the United Nations to declare its highest level of emergency to tackle the humanitarian crisis Humanitarian response: An RAF C-130 transport plane lands in heavy fog in Akrotiri, Cyprus, before being deployed to carry out aid drops to stranded Yazidis A GLOBAL RESPONSE: WHO'S DOING WHAT?

UK David Cameron has reigned back plans to airlift Yazidis off Mount Sinjar, but will continue to drop aid to the remaining Yazidis stranded there. The Prime Minister said armed forces assets were in place to 'help out in the right way' if the situation demanded it.



US American forces conducted a seventh airdrop of food and water for those remaining on the mountain, bringing the total aid delivered in co-ordination with the Iraqi government to more than 114,000 meals and 35,000 gallons of drinking water. Washington has already said it will ship weapons to the Kurds to help them fight back against the jihadists.



EU

The European Union is looking into how it could tighten sanctions to stop Islamic State militants from selling oil from fields they have overrun in Syria. The issue could come up at an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers called for tomorrow to discuss the humanitarian and security crisis in Iraq. The EU will increase aid to Iraq to £13.6million.



UN 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



France France is supplying arms in response to a request from Iraq's Kurdish leadership, President Francois Hollande's office said. France has dropped water, tents and medicine to Yazidis sheltering on the mountain amid fears of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.



Australia

Sending two C-130 Hercules transport planes for humanitarian aid drops to begin within two or three days

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 United States has been carrying out air strikes in recent days against Islamic State fighters, helping fend back their advance on Kurdish regions. At the same time, Iraq's central government in Baghdad has been mired in political turmoil, after the president nominated a Shi'ite politician, Haider Abadi, to form the next government, putting him on track to replace embattled prime minister Nouri Maliki. Mr Maliki said yesterday he would not relinquish power until a federal court ruled on what he called a 'constitutional violation' by President Fouad Massoum. 'Holding on (to the premiership) is an ethical and patriotic duty to defend the rights of voters,'he said in his weekly address to the nation, insisting his actions were meant to 'protect the state'. Mr Maliki has grown increasingly isolated, with Iraqi politicians and much of the international community lining up behind Mr Abadi. Mr Abadi was picked to form a new government that can unite the country in the face of the Sunni militant onslaught, which many say Mr Maliki fuelled by initiating pro-Shi'ite policies that alienated the Sunni minority. Widespread discontent with Mr Maliki's rule has reached the point where both Saudi Arabia and Iran - regional rivals often bitterly divided over Iraq - have expressed support for Mr Abadi. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have also offered support for new leadership. In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed hope that 'a government will be formed so that they (Iraqis) can give the necessary and appropriate response to the sedition-makers'. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it hoped Mr Abadi would establish 'a comprehensive national government that includes all components of the Iraqi people'. The UN Security Council said it was encouraged by President Massoum's decision to nominate a new prime minister-designate and urged Mr Abadi to work swiftly to form 'an inclusive government that represents all segments of the Iraqi population and that contributes to finding a viable and sustainable solution to the country's current challenges'.

Iraqi troops imposed heightened security in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Tanks and Humvees were positioned on Baghdad bridges and at major intersections, with security personnel more visible than usual as about 100 Maliki supporters rallied at Firdous Square.

At a meeting between Mr Maliki and senior military commanders broadcast on state television, the incumbent premier warned that security forces should not get involved in politics.

He also raised the spectre of further unrest by saying Sunni militants or Shiite militiamen might don military uniforms and try to take control of the streets and 'make things worse'.

Meanwhile attacks in and near Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded scores more yesterday.

A graphic showing the plans that were put in place to rescue thousands of Yazidis trapped in Iraq. This appears to have been called off after the number of those trapped was far fewer than previously thought Scattered: A graphic showing the various escape routes the Yazidis have taken, often through hundreds of kilometres of desert terrain, after being attacked by ISIS

A car bomb in eastern New Baghdad killed eight while six people, including four police officers, died when a car bomb struck a checkpoint in western Baghdad.



A bomb at a central market killed five people while two died in a bombing in the commercial Karrada district. A car bomb in the Baiyaa neighborhood killed four and four more died in a mortar attack north of the capital.

The European Union's 28 foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Iraq tomorrow to co-ordinate their stance on military support for the Kurds and providing humanitarian assistance for those fleeing the fighting.

The EU currently has an arms embargo on Iraq but it provides loopholes for equipment sold or transferred to the Iraqi military or international forces in Iraq.



Sending arms directly to the Kurdish forces without going through Baghdad, however, could be seen as a violation of the embargo - thus the need for a decision by the EU ministers.