The United Nations Security Council is warning that the so-called Islamic State extremist group may be held accountable for crimes against humanity for its systematic persecution of minorities in Iraq.

The council strongly condemned the radical group for attacking and killing minorities including Christians.

A press statement approved Tuesday noted that the large-scale offensive by the Islamic State group has crossed the border from Syria to Iraq and said the group poses a threat "not only to these countries but to regional peace, security and stability."

The council singled out the Islamic State group's attacks on the Iraqi towns of Sinjar and Tal Afar near the Syrian border for condemnation, expressing deep concern for the hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee and many others who have been executed or kidnapped.

Iraqi helicopters dropped supplies to thousands of desperate people hiding in mountains from Islamic State (IS) fighters, as officials warned that the Yazidi in the town of Sinjar risked being massacred or starved into extinction.
  
A Yazidi lawmaker broke down in tears during a parliament session as she urged the government and the international community to save her community. "Over the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged in the Sinjar mountains, with no water and no food," said Vian Dakhil. "Seventy children have already died of thirst and 30 elderly people have also died," she said.

Sinjar is also a temporary home for thousands of displaced people from other minorities, such as Shiite Turkmen who fled the nearby city of Tal Afar when the terrorists launched their offensive on June 9.

Amnesty International also insisted a broader international effort was needed.

Pictures posted on the Internet by members of the Yazidi community show little clusters of people gathering on the cave-dotted flanks of a craggy canyon. Others posted by pro-terrorists purportedly show an insurgent holding the severed head of a Yazidi man from Sinjar.