Thousands of civilians who escaped a jihadist siege streamed into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq Wednesday as the West boosted efforts to assist people still trapped and arm Kurds battling to break the siege.
The United States has carried out air strikes against jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group in Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, where the UN refugee agency has said tens of thousands of civilians, many of them members of the Yazidi minority, remain stranded.
Thousands poured across a border bridge into camps in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday after trekking through neighbouring Syria to find refuge, most with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.
Some women carried exhausted children, weeping as they reached the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan after fleeing the jihadist offensive which drove Kurdish forces from their home villages.
