:00:23. > :00:30.Hello and welcome to this special edition of reporters, I am Tim
:00:31. > :00:38.Wilcox. As the humanitarian crisis deepens and the militants in Iraqi
:00:39. > :00:41.gather pace, we have reports across the region. Stranded on Mount
:00:42. > :00:48.Sinjar, Paul Woods reports from the besieged Iraqi mountain. The
:00:49. > :00:54.question remains, how are these people and a million other displaced
:00:55. > :01:00.Iraqis going to get home when the Islamic state controls so much of
:01:01. > :01:04.the country. The human tragedy of Barack's civil conflict. Caroline
:01:05. > :01:08.Wyatt reports on the refugees who desperately need help. The real
:01:09. > :01:11.focus is on how to look after the survivors and the sick and injured
:01:12. > :01:16.who have come down from the mountains. Bridget Kendall assesses
:01:17. > :01:25.the strategy of Britain's current intervention in Iraq. The United
:01:26. > :01:32.Nations declared its highest level of emergency in Iraq because of the
:01:33. > :01:37.humanitarian crisis in the north. It warned thousands of men, women and
:01:38. > :01:40.children stranded on a mountain besieged by militants without food
:01:41. > :01:46.and water were in desperate need of help. Later President Obama said
:01:47. > :01:50.that air strikes had broken the siege of Mount Sinjar and conditions
:01:51. > :01:53.were not as areas as previously thought. Paul Woods travelled to the
:01:54. > :02:01.mountain to speak to the people still trying to reach safety. This
:02:02. > :02:07.is the one road from Mount Sinjar not controlled by the Islamic state.
:02:08. > :02:13.This harsh and Baron Touraine, the anyway of escape the tens of
:02:14. > :02:19.thousands of Yazidi's if you are still making their way out on foot.
:02:20. > :02:25.This family collapsed exhausted after getting here this morning.
:02:26. > :02:28.Another family told me they had hidden the days, silent and
:02:29. > :02:36.terrified before sneaking away, bodies in the streets. A few people
:02:37. > :02:39.remained scattered across the mountain. They have cobbled together
:02:40. > :02:47.a camp with supplies dropped by the RAF. It is brutally hot. They have
:02:48. > :02:53.next to nothing. They say they have no choice but to flee. One man tells
:02:54. > :02:59.me the jihadis put a gun to his head and told him to convert or die. Like
:03:00. > :03:06.everyone here he says he will never abandon his faith. Sheltered
:03:07. > :03:10.courtesy at the British taxpayer, they are profoundly grateful for the
:03:11. > :03:16.aid they have received. They are also desperate for more military
:03:17. > :03:26.help, they face genocide they say. First they came for the Christians,
:03:27. > :03:28.then ask, yes CD `` Yazidi. If the international community will not
:03:29. > :03:33.step in, all of us will be destroyed. The only soldiers
:03:34. > :03:39.confronting the Islamic state in this part of Iraq are the Kurds, the
:03:40. > :03:47.US and Britain aren't determined not to send troops. Even with US air
:03:48. > :03:52.support there is not much the Kurds can do. They are stuck here along
:03:53. > :03:57.with those who fled. More than 100,000 terrified Yazidi flowed over
:03:58. > :04:02.this mountain, many of them at risk from dying of heat or thirst. A
:04:03. > :04:07.humanitarian catastrophe has been averted, most people have moved on,
:04:08. > :04:12.just a few stragglers left behind, but the question remains, how are
:04:13. > :04:16.these people and a million other displaced Iraqis going to get home
:04:17. > :04:23.when the Islamic state controls much of the country. The refugee camps
:04:24. > :04:30.overstretched and they squat by the side of the road in despair. The
:04:31. > :04:34.Yazidi do not hold out much hope of a foreign intervention to defeat the
:04:35. > :04:37.jihadis. After thousands of years in this part of, these people are
:04:38. > :04:48.afraid they no longer have place here. `` Iraq. Many of the thousands
:04:49. > :04:53.of Yazidi who fled Mount Sinjar have reached the relative safety of the
:04:54. > :04:59.Turkish border. Kurdish officials say the situation there is now
:05:00. > :05:03.critical. 400,000 Iraqis have taken refuge in the province. Caroline
:05:04. > :05:09.Wyatt reports from where people are in urgent need of tents, food and
:05:10. > :05:13.water. Volunteer Kurdish medical teams have been risking their lives
:05:14. > :05:18.to reach Mount Sinjar to reach the injured and sick. These are the
:05:19. > :05:25.images they brought back. Over the past few days, the numbers are still
:05:26. > :05:28.stranded there have diminished. But many of the most vulnerable
:05:29. > :05:34.survivors are still arriving in Iraqi Kurdistan in urgent need of
:05:35. > :05:40.treatment. On one day alone, the hospital treated up to 800
:05:41. > :05:47.casualties. This man is 80. In the Exodus, even the old had to walk to
:05:48. > :06:02.survive. He told me he had to go on foot down the mountain. For over 50
:06:03. > :06:06.kilometres. His journey took days. Now the real focus is on how to look
:06:07. > :06:10.after the survivors, how to treat the sick and injured who have come
:06:11. > :06:14.down from the mountains and how to prevent any outbreak of disease
:06:15. > :06:19.thanks to the conditions that many refugees are now living in. The
:06:20. > :06:22.families who made it to safety remain in these abandoned buildings
:06:23. > :06:33.or in schools in their tens of thousands. Maybe in a few days we
:06:34. > :06:37.may face some diseases. We may have an epidemic of cholera, polio,
:06:38. > :06:46.measles, because the places where they live now, they are just public
:06:47. > :06:51.buildings, public parks. Existing refugee camps are already full, the
:06:52. > :06:57.province is now home to 400,000 people fleeing Islamic state
:06:58. > :07:01.fighters. Doubling population here. Support from outside is what they
:07:02. > :07:07.need here and some of that was visible in the form of another RAF
:07:08. > :07:10.air to Mount Sinjar. Although it seems there will be no US rescue
:07:11. > :07:15.after American special forces landed on the mountain to assess what is
:07:16. > :07:18.needed to be done. The bottom line is the situation on the mountain has
:07:19. > :07:22.greatly improved and Americans should be very proud of our efforts,
:07:23. > :07:27.because of the skill and professionalism of our military and
:07:28. > :07:32.the generosity of our people we broke the siege of Mount Sinjar and
:07:33. > :07:38.we help vulnerable people reach safety and we helped saved many in
:07:39. > :07:45.some lives `` helps save many innocent lives. The UK are ready and
:07:46. > :07:53.waiting to play their part in what ever it may be in bringing help to
:07:54. > :07:58.Iraq. Three months ago a rock was essentially being left to itself,
:07:59. > :08:02.now after the lightning land gripes my Islamic states, the West is now
:08:03. > :08:06.being drawn back into the region. When the US and Britain refuse to go
:08:07. > :08:16.into Syria for so long, why intervene in Iraq now? The British
:08:17. > :08:19.commitment to northern Iraq is steadily increasing. Tornadoes to
:08:20. > :08:23.provide surveillance for new age deliveries, now the government has
:08:24. > :08:27.decided it should employ generic helicopters as well. There is a
:08:28. > :08:32.balance to be struck between the risks of doing this and the accuracy
:08:33. > :08:35.we can get to being relatively low. We take that into consideration when
:08:36. > :08:40.planning these humanitarian missions. US involvement is growing
:08:41. > :08:46.as well. There has only been a handful of air strikes to reduce the
:08:47. > :08:51.Islamic state militant attacks. There are trainers on the ground.
:08:52. > :08:57.When the US and Britain have so long refused to go into Syria, why
:08:58. > :09:03.intervene in Iraq now? Far more than Syria, the US and its allies have
:09:04. > :09:07.deep`seated interests in Iraq, due to its profitable oil industry and
:09:08. > :09:13.for historical reasons as well. Two wars fought there since 1990, US led
:09:14. > :09:21.occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. If Iraq implodes, the West
:09:22. > :09:25.will share some of the blame. The big issue here is the safeguarding
:09:26. > :09:28.and investment, they are safeguarding the investments of
:09:29. > :09:33.other countries and that is what is happening. They see Iraq as being
:09:34. > :09:37.more valuable from an economic and strategic standpoint and also being
:09:38. > :09:42.more valuable from a security standpoint than Syria. If the West
:09:43. > :09:46.wants its intervention to stay limited, what is the long`term
:09:47. > :09:51.strategy? The short answer is to stave off the worst, an Islamic
:09:52. > :09:56.state victory turning Iraq into a haven for terrorism. Or internal
:09:57. > :10:05.sectarian tensions will tear the country apart. We want to buy time.
:10:06. > :10:08.They have two preserve the government of Baghdad, preserve a
:10:09. > :10:12.Kurdish autonomy to hold as much of Iraq together as possible. If they
:10:13. > :10:17.do not do something, it will simply disappear. It is not just the
:10:18. > :10:21.West's concerns over how to solve the crisis that matter, a new
:10:22. > :10:24.central government in Baghdad strong enough to hold the country together
:10:25. > :10:31.and came to the extremist threat will only work with support from
:10:32. > :10:35.Iran as well. Turan's backing to the new Prime Minister is so important.
:10:36. > :10:43.It could be Iraq's crisis is already out of control. And that is all from
:10:44. > :10:47.this special edition of reporters on the Iraq crisis for this week. From
:10:48. > :10:51.meeting Wilcox and the team, goodbye for now. `` from me, Tim Wilcox and
:10:52. > :11:10.the team. I know it is only the middle of
:11:11. > :11:18.August, but at times it could start to feel like early autumn, I have
:11:19. > :11:20.said it. Some rain today, but a lot of sunshine as well. The rain coming