Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar sit Tuesday at a school where they are taking shelter, in the city of Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. (Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst. 
 
 Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children. 
 
 Unable to dig deep into the rocky mountainside, displaced families said they have buried young and elderly victims of the harsh conditions in shallow graves, their bodies covered with stones. Iraqi government planes attempted to airdrop bottled water to the mountain on Monday night but reached few of those marooned. 
 
 “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads,” said Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.” 
 
 Most of those who fled Sinjar are from the minority Yazidi sect, which melds parts of ancient Zoroastrianism with Christianity and Islam. They are considered by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State to be devil worshippers and apostates. 
 
 Iraqi politician Vian Dakhil makes a raw, emotional plea for the protection of the Yazidi people before Iraqi parliament. (YouTube/Al Sumaria TV) 
 
 The dramatic advance of the extremist Sunni fighters has torn the ethnic and religious fabric of the country, with Christians and Shiites also uprooted from cities and towns. 
 
 The Islamic State’s takeover of Sinjar, the first major setback for Kurdish forces protecting the country’s north, sent about 200,000 people fleeing, according to the United Nations. Some 147,000 have arrived in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, flooding refugee camps. 
 
 Most of those stranded on Mount Sinjar had run out of battery life on their cellphones by Tuesday, but the few that still could communicate gave grim updates. 
 
 On Tuesday, 10 children and one elderly woman died, while on Monday, seven children had perished, said 23-year-old Shihab Balki, who was trapped with his mother, sister and four brothers. “I saw their bodies with my own eyes.” 
 
 He later texted the news of another casualty: a young man who had died of thirst, leaving his wife and five children behind. UNICEF said that 40 children had died after being displaced from their homes in the area in the 48 hours ending Monday night, including an unknown number on the mountain. The agency did not have figures for Tuesday. 
 
 In Baghdad, parliamentarians complained bitterly about the plight of the displaced, their discussions temporarily overshadowing wrangling over the nomination of a prime minister. 
 
 “Children have died because of dehydration and lack of food,” Vian Dakheel, a Yazidi parliamentarian from Sinjar, said through tears. “My people are being slaughtered,” she continued, referring to reports of mass killings of those who had stayed behind. 
 
 The ancient and secretive Yazidi sect, whose members number no more than 600,000 across Iraq, has suffered persecution for centuries. 
 
 Islamic State posted the first pictures of its capture of Sinjar on social networking sites on Tuesday. One showed six men lying face-down in a field, a pistol pointed at the backs of their heads. “Kill them wherever you find them,” read the caption. 
 
 Salem al-Sinjari, a 45-year-old teacher, said he’d seen around 25 bodies piled in the streets as he fled Sunday, leaving early enough to catch a ride to the Kurdish region. His mother, five brothers and two sisters wound up besieged on the mountain. He said he last spoke to them Monday before their last cellphone battery died. 
 
 Iraqi Kurdish security forces known as pesh merga are attempting to secure a road from the mountain to the nearby city of Rabia, but the process involves clearing villages where locals are sympathetic to the militants, said Majid Shingali, another local parliamentarian, who left Sinjar on Saturday. 
 
 Kurdish factions in neighboring Syria say they are entering Iraq to assist this country’s Kurds as they face Islamic State along a 650-mile front. 
 
 The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organization by the United States for its armed struggle against the Turkish state, also called for all Kurdish factions to unite against the Sunni extremists. 
 
 Babille, UNICEF’s Iraq representative, said that U.N. agencies have offered the Iraqi government technical assistance with airdrops but have yet to be asked for help. At least 15 to 20 flights would be needed just to provide those stranded with enough water and supplies to survive for a week, he said. 
 
 “We need to get them out,” he said. “If we don’t, it would be catastrophic.” 
 
 Mustafa Salim contributed to this report. ||||| Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, just west of Mosul, and took refuge at Dohuk province on Aug. 4. (Ari Jala/Reuters) 
 
 Politicians appealed Wednesday for emergency aid for thousands of minority Iraqis who have been stranded with little food on a mountaintop in the country’s northwest, surrounded by al-Qaeda-inspired rebels. 
 
 For nearly two months, Kurdish forces had managed to protect the area from the Sunni extremists who have rampaged through much of northern Iraq, slaughtering opponents, destroying ancient shrines and demanding that people of other religions convert or die. But last weekend the famously tough Kurdish fighters suffered their first setbacks in the Sinjar region, prompting hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee. 
 
 An estimated 10,000 to 40,000 of them sought refuge on the craggy peaks of Mount Sinjar — largely members of the minority Yazidi sect. They fear death if they descend into areas controlled by the extremist rebels, who consider them apostates. Kurdish forces have so far failed to break through the militants’ lines to reach them, despite launching a counteroffensive early this week. 
 
 The Iraqi government conducted two airdrops of aid to the desperate refugees on Wednesday, but humanitarian workers said they did not come close to meeting the growing need. Some of the water bottles in the aid bundles cracked open. 
 
 “Is help coming?” one of those trapped on the mountain, 23-year-old Shihab Balki, asked when contacted by cellphone — one of the few belonging to the refugees that still had battery life. He said that at least 17 children have died on the mountain because of the inhospitable conditions. 
 
 Iraqi politician Vian Dakhil makes a raw, emotional plea for the protection of the Yazidi people before Iraqi parliament. (YouTube/Al Sumaria TV) 
 
 “I’m standing here next to an old lady and a child lying on the ground. They are not dead, but we fear they are dying,” Balki said. 
 
 UNICEF says it has confirmed that children have perished on Mount Sinjar but does not have verified up-to-date figures. 
 
 Balki said later Wednesday that he had managed to secure about four gallons of water for his family of seven from one of the day’s airdrops — not nearly enough in the hot Iraqi summer. Many of the bottles dropped in a wooden crate had cracked, their precious contents spilling onto the rocks, he said. Earlier airdrops included food and milk, but the cartons of milk also smashed on the mountainside, he said. 
 
 Haji Ghandour, a Yazidi member of parliament in Baghdad, said the shortage of aid was acute. 
 
 “There are some airdrops, but they aren’t even covering half the need,” he said. “Most of these supplies fall near to [Islamic State fighters], others break and are ruined. The operation is not accurate.” 
 
 The United Nations says the Iraqi government has yet to take up an offer of technical assistance for airdrops, which are being coordinated with local authorities in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northeastern Iraq. 
 
 Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Kurdistan region’s foreign minister, argued that Iraq simply lacks the capacity to provide aid and needs international help. “This is not a time for technical assistance,” he said. “This is a time for immediate action. Children are dying.” 
 
 Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect take refuge Aug. 4 in Dohuk province. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered his air force to back Kurdish forces against Islamic State fighters. (Ari Jala/Reuters) 
 
 In Washington, Obama administration officials did not respond Wednesday to queries about whether the U.S. government was considering providing assistance. 
 
 Trouble on several fronts 
 
 Meanwhile, tens of thousands of newly displaced people have flooded into the Kurdish region, which Bakir said lacks the finances to assist them. The region, which is home to just over 5 million residents, is now hosting an additional 1.5 million people — refugees from the Syrian war and internally displaced Iraqis, he said. 
 
 Kurdish officials had warned for weeks that they were unable to maintain the fight along the semiautonomous region’s 650-mile-long front with the militants, unless the Kurds got outside support. A lack of ammunition and advanced weaponry forced the retreat from Sinjar, Kurdish officials say. 
 
 The Kurds say they are trying to put out fires on multiple fronts, trying to recapture land only to be attacked elsewhere as the Islamic State continues to jab at its boundaries. 
 
 That threat was underscored on Wednesday when, as Kurdish forces continued their counter­offensive near Sinjar, they were forced to send reinforcements 150 miles east to Makhmur and Gweir as militants attempted to push closer to their regional capital, Irbil. 
 
 “It’s not fair that we are left fighting these terrorists alone,” said Bakir, the Kurdistan region’s foreign minister. “We need immediate action. We look to the United States, we look to NATO.” 
 
 “The West have armed many groups around the world. Why not help us be in the front against terrorism?” Bakir said. “We don’t understand.” 
 
 Kurds receive air cover 
 
 The Kurds are supposed to receive a share of weapons and budgetary outlays from the national government in Baghdad. But relations between the two governments have soured, as some prominent Kurdish leaders have called for independence. 
 
 In recent days, however, the Iraqi military has started providing air cover to Kurdish security forces known as pesh merga. 
 
 Still, Kurdish troops have not been paid for months because of the suspension of budget payments from Baghdad, and the northern region has struggled to procure military supplies. Those relations are likely to worsen if Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stays in power, with a change in leadership seen by many as the only way of keeping the north from splitting away. Maliki has held the country’s top political job since 2006. 
 
 Maliki appeared defiant on Wednesday, even though the country’s religious authorities and his own party are indicating he should step aside. He argued that his political bloc had won the largest share in the elections in April and should be allowed to nominate the prime minister. 
 
 If the constitution is ignored, it will “open the gates of hell” in Iraq, he said. 
 
 Mustafa Salim in Baghdad and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
– The Islamic State regards Iraq's Yazidi minority as devil worshippers, so when militants captured the village of Sinjar this weekend, 60-year-old Yazidi farmer Kareem Sido fled to the mountains with thousands of others. What he found there were people dying of thirst in conditions so dire that he risked the trip home, Reuters reports. Up to 40,000 refugees remain on Mount Sinjar, however, surrounded by the extremists who attacked their village and who have a penchant for beheading dissenters. There is little food or water, and though the UN has offered to drop supplies, it hasn't been asked to do so by the Iraqi government. One witness tells the Washington Post that 10 children and one elderly woman died yesterday and seven children Monday; UNICEF believes 40 children have died since fleeing their village Monday night. "We need to get them out. If we don’t, it would be catastrophic," a UNICEF rep tells the Post. Going home would also spell death: "We would need a miracle to avoid the Islamic State's brutality," says one resident. There are about 308,000 Yazidi in Sinjar’s district; a minority sect of the Kurds, their religion is a combo of ancient Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. When the Islamic State came to Sinjar on Saturday, 20 Yazidi were killed in a failed defense and 30 more died of unknown causes. Many more fled—the US-trained army fell apart and the Kurdish pershmerga, mobilized to take their place, ran away "without shooting a bullet," one Sinjar resident tells Reuters. The Christian Science Monitor has this primer on the Yazidi people.