5-year-old Ali Saleh, whose family has been displaced from the Kokjeli area in the conflict-affected city of Mosul, stands by a pole at the entrance to a tent in the Khazar transit camp in the northern-eastern city of Erbil, capital of Kurdistan Region

Sinjar's Children Trapped, Under Attack — UNICEF Iraq Responds

"We know for sure there are 25,000 children in the mountains."

Children Under Attack in Sinjar

Violence is escalating in Iraq, with reports of displaced children from Iraqi minority groups being killed and thousands of people stranded in the mountains surrounding Sinjar city.

Sinjar, a district of Ninewa in northwest Iraq with a population of at least 150,000 children, was taken over by the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) on Sunday.

Will Parks, UNICEF's chief field officer in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq described the situation in a New York Times video, "We know for sure there are 25,000 children in the mountains ... We know for sure that 40 children have already died. That's the number we can confirm, but it's probably much more than that ... They're on the sides of the mountains. They've got no vegetation, no cover. They're sleeping out in the open. They've got no food, no water, no medical supplies.

Said UNICEF Iraq representative Marzio Babille in The Washington Post, "There are children dying on the mountains, on the roads ... They are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It's a disaster..."

UPDATE: Marzio Babille appeals for the immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor in this CNN video.

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