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US Troops Land on Mount Sinjar in Iraq to Organize Refugees Evacuation

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American troops landed on Iraq's Mount Sinjar on Wednesday, where thousands of Yazidis have been trapped by Islamic State (IS) insurgents, to assess the situation, Reuters reported, citing a Pentagon source.

MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) – American troops landed on Iraq's Mount Sinjar on Wednesday, where thousands of Yazidis have been trapped by Islamic State (IS) insurgents, to assess the situation, Reuters reported, citing a Pentagon source.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) personnel also landed on Mount Sinjar, according to the source.

The US troops are supposed to assess options for a potential evacuation of the stranded Iraqi refugees.

The Pentagon said earlier it had sent 130 military advisers to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, in addition to the 250 who are already on the ground in northern Iraq.

Washington has been providing humanitarian aid to Yazidi Kurds, a religious minority in northern Iraq fleeing from Islamic State militants' onslaught. The US Air Force has also been bombing IS targets and helping to ship weapons to Iraqi Kurds battling the extremists.

The Islamic State is a Sunni group, formerly known as ISIS, which has been fighting in Syria and launched an offensive in Iraq in June. The group has taken over large parts of the country, with the goal of seizing Baghdad. Also in June, insurgents announced the establishment of a caliphate on the Iraq-Syria border.

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