Iraqis Friday welcomed the U.S. airlift of emergency aid to thousands of people who fled to the mountains to escape ISIS militants and called for greater intervention, as U.S. warplanes struck the jihadists for the first time.

The latest population movements have exacerbated Iraq's already-dire humanitarian crisis, with some 200,000 Iraqis joining the 1.5 million people already displaced from violence this year.

The government's emergency committee, COBRA, met and agreed to help U.S. humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and send the Royal Air Force (RAF) to drop food for stranded civilians.

Turkey is also stepping up humanitarian aid to northern Iraq, officials said, but looks unlikely to get involved in military action against advancing Islamist militants there unless its southern border with Iraq is directly threatened.

...