On Wednesday, Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, came under assault from the Islamic State, and all 50 to 60,000 of its residents have fled to Erbil in Kurdistan. In June, Qaraqosh's residents had fled in terror when Mosul was taken but, some 80 percent of them had since returned. The recent exodus was triggered when jihadists' mortars killed two children and a 30-year-old woman. Yesterday, the Christian residents of other Nineveh towns and villages, Bartilla, and Bahzany, also left and sought safe haven in the monastery of Mar Mattai, as well as in Erbil and Duhok. Ba'ashiqa and the Ba'ashiqa Monastery are being evacuated by their inhabitants and the displaced civilians who had recently sought refuge there. The Yazidi and Christian families who lived in Ein Sifni are all fleeing. The enormity of the humanitarian crisis of the cascading exodus from Nineveh was overshadowed, though, by the early reports indicating genocide is taking place against the people of Sinjar, who are mostly followers of the Yazidi religion but also include some Christians. The Yazidi city of Sinjar and the towns of Tal Afar and Zummar, captured on Sunday by the Islamic State, remain under jihadi control. Some 200,000 of their citizens fled, mostly to Kurdistan. But about 40,000 are now in a truly desperate situation, trapped on Mount Sinjar, where they had fled on foot without provisions and are now dying. Quoting a UNICEF spokesperson, the Washington Post reports today: "There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. 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." Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana reports that Kurdistan's High Commission of Human Rights airlifted ten shipments of aid, each with 20 tons of provisions, to those on Mount Sinjar today. Others who did not manage to escape have been executed, abducted into sex slavery, or are being used by jihadis as human shields. The following is a description of their ongoing ordeal from a report sent today by Christiana Patto of the Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq:

Yesterday 45 children died of thirst. Some families throw their children from the top of Sinjar mountain in order not to see them die from hunger or thirst, or not to be taken by the terrorists. 1500 men were killed in front of their wives and families, 50 old men died also from thirst and illness. More than 70 girl and women including Christians were taken, raped and being captured and sold. More than 100 families are captured in Tel afar airport. There is about 50 Christian families in Sinjar. The terrorists were able to control the Syriac church there and cover the Cross with their black banner. Till now we do not know anything about those Christian families.

The Assyrian International News Agency reports that the jihadis took captive 150 Yazidi families in Iraq and brought them to Syria for reasons unknown, where they are being held at Camp Hol. Meanwhile, 500 more Yazidi families were taken to Tel Afar, Iraq, where they are being used as human shields in the Qalaat Tel Afar (the city's old castle) and in schools. In response yesterday, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power issued the highest level statement so far by the Obama administration on the two-month-long attack against non-Sunnis in Iraq by the Islamic State. Still relying on the formation of a new Iraqi government as the principal solution, she appealed to "all parties to the conflict," stating:

We urge all parties to the conflict to allow safe access to the United Nations and its partners so they can deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including to those Iraqi families reportedly encircled by ISIL on Mount Sinjar. The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront the security and humanitarian challenges in their fight against ISIL. Iraq's leaders must move swiftly to form a new, fully inclusive government that takes into account the rights, aspirations and legitimate concerns of all of Iraq's communities. All Iraqis must come together to ensure that Iraq gets back on the path to a peaceful future and to prevent ISIL from obliterating Iraq's vibrant diversity.

Meanwhile, I just received word that residents of Erbil are now fleeing in panic. My contact writes at 4:41 p.m. today:

People now all leaving Erbil to go a bit more to the northeastern part of Kurdistan. There have been fight in Khabour for the last two days and apparently ISIS is winning, peshmerga is giving in, and they are closing on Erbil. People are freaking out and Security is on every other meter on the streets. Checkpoints everywhere and they are stopping everybody.