The UN has expressed “serious alarm” about a possible massacre in the northern Iraqi town of Amerli, besieged by Islamic State militants.
The town has been cut off for two months and residents, mostly Shia Turkmen, have no electricity or drinking water and are running out of food supplies.
"The situation of the people in Amerli is desperate and demands immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens," Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.
"I urge the Iraqi government to do all it can to relieve the siege and to ensure that the residents receive life-saving humanitarian assistance or are evacuated in a dignified manner."
Meanwhile a series of explosions in Baghdad, Kirkuk and the Kurdish capital Erbil has killed at least 30 people.
It is thought that the latest wave in bomb attacks came in response to a suicide bomb on a Sunni mosque on Friday, killing more than 60 people, with Shia gunmen shooting fleeing survivors.