1 killed in aid helicopter crash in northern Iraq

An Iraqi army helicopter carrying aid to trapped Yazidis crashed on Tuesday in northern Iraq, killing the pilot and injuring some 20 passengers, local media reported.
The wounded, including Yazidi member of parliament Vian Dakheel and two New York Times journalists, have been flown to hospitals in Zakho, a city in Iraq's Kurdish region, state-run Iraqiya TV reported.
The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter, carrying humanitarian aid to Yazidis trapped in Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, crashed due to "a technical fault," Rudaw Media Network quoted Iraq's military spokesman General Qassim Atta as saying.
Around 35,000 people have escaped from the Sinjar mountains in northwest Iraq -- where they were besieged by fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- and have reached the Dohuk Governorate in the Kurdish region during the past 72 hours, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said earlier Tuesday.
UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told a press conference that the people made their way back into Dohuk Governorate via Syria, and moved to places including Zakho and Dohuk town where 16 school buildings have been made available. Food, water and medical care were also provided.
Edwards said that up to date, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people remained trapped in Sinjar mountain with no food, water or shelter, and access to these people was "extremely limited."
The UN refugee agency noted that the Dohuk governorate was currently hosting around 400,000 displaced Iraqis, including Yazidis, Christians, Shabak, Kakai, Armenian and Turkman minorities, some of whom have endured repeated displacement.
Meanwhile, UNHCR data showed that another 10,000 to 15,000 Yazidi Iraqis fleeing Sinjar have arrived in Syria, a country itself also suffering volatility.
In recent days, ISIL militants have stormed towns in the northern part of Iraq as it advances to other parts of the country.
Thousands of civilians -- many of them from the ethnic Yazidi minority -- are trapped in the Sinjar mountains where they took shelter and are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance after attacks by the armed militant group.
UNHCR said that in all, there are more than 1.2 million internally-displaced people in Iraq, including an estimated 700, 000 in the Kurdistan region which already hosts some 225,000 Syrian refugees.
Form: XINHUA