Aid Drops
Overnight the U.S. military conducted a sixth airdrop of a total of 108 bundles of food and water for thousands of Iraqis on Mount Sinjar, according to the US Central Command in Florida.
To date, in coordination with the government of Iraq, U.S. military aircraft have delivered nearly 100,000 meals and more than 27,000 gallons of fresh drinking water. Britain has also pinched.
UN warns of "genocide"
The UN has warned that up to 30,000 people are still facing a "potential genocide" on Mount Sanjir , where thousands of members of minority groups, including Yazidis and Christians are stranded and face a major threat from IS militants.
UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters there were 20,000-30,000 people on Mount Sinjar, and UN minority rights expert Rita Izsak warned they face "a mass atrocity and potential genocide within days or hours."
More U.S. Military Advisers
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today that 130 more American military advisers have been sent to Kurdistan autonomous region.
The marines and special operations forces are expected to examine the humanitarian situation and will not be engaged in combat.
Hagel said “it is not a combat boots on the ground kind of operation," rather the "assessment team members" that had arrived in the northern city of Irbil would "give more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help.”
The U.S. already has about 250 military advisers in Iraq.
Iraq Aid Helicopter Crashed
Since we wrapped up the blog yesterday, an Iraqi pilot was killed and a lawmaker injured last evening when a military helicopter delivering humanitarian aid to refugees in northern Iraq crashed, Iraqi television reported.
Iraqiya TV quoted army spokesman Qassem Atta as saying the MI17 Russian-made helicopter crashed due to a technical fault on Sinjar mountain, where thousands of ethnic Yazidis are trapped after fleeing IS militants.
The New York Times reported on its website that reporter Alissa J. Rubin, riding along on the helicopter for a story, suffered an apparent concussion and broken wrists in the crash. Photographer Adam Ferguson was also on board but uninjured.
Welcome back to our live-blogging of the all the key events unfolding in Iraq.
That concludes our live-blogging for today, Tuesday August 12th. We will be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. (Prague time). In the meantime, for any updates on Iraq or our wider broadcast region, check out the RFE/RL homepage.
Regional support for Abadi
Both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two predominately Sunni Muslim countries, have welcomed Abadi's selection as the new prime minister to replace Maliki.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement:
"It is a positive and important development for the Iraqi President Fouad Masoum to mandate Haider al-Abadi as prime minister ... We wish him success in his post. We call on all Iraqi political leaders to act in consensus and support the formation of the new government."
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal simply said: "This is the good news I heard lately."
IS by the numbers
The Huffington Post has some shocking numbers on IS:
13,000 -- The number of square miles thought to be under Islamic State control, a stretch between Syria and Iraq that is roughly the size of Belgium.
1,922 -- The number of people killed in Iraq in June, according to government figures, making it the deadliest month since May 2007. Official figures report 1,393 civilians, 380 soldiers and 149 policemen among the dead.
30,000 - 50,000 -- The number of militants now fighting with IS, according to a recent estimate by Dr. Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on the group. Many former Iraqi soldiers have been forced to join and others have been recruited from around the region and beyond.
5 -- The number of nations with which IS has engaged in direct fighting. Insurgents have attacked soldiers from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.
$2,000,000,000 -- The approximate value of the IS's cash and assets, according to estimates from terrorism experts. In June, Islamic State fighters captured the city of Mosul, looting hundreds of million of dollars from banks and acquiring hundreds more in military assets from the Iraqi Army.
Read the full story here.