[IsraelTimes] In Iraq, IS fighters had again surrounded Mount Sinjar in the country's north where they had trapped thousands of civilians this summer, commanders in the area said.The civilians, mostly members of the Yazidi religious minority, eventually escaped via Syria with the help of Kurdish fighters from Iraq's neighbour to the west, but that route has now been cut.
"The mountain is besieged" again, and IS Death Eaters are "trying to climb the mountain on foot to fight the Yazidi volunteers," Dawud Jundi, a commander of the forces defending the area, told AFP by telephone.
The IS push began Monday, when some 300 of the Death Eaters with armoured vehicles attacked and seized nearby villages and then turned their attention on the mountain itself.
"We don't have anything but light weapons," Jundi said.
On Mount Sinjar, "there are almost 2,000 families whose situations are very bad," he said.
The first siege of Mount Sinjar was a key moment in the conflict with IS, with the plight of the people trapped on the mountain helping to prompt Washington to begin air strikes against the jihadists.
The Iraqi capital Baghdad has also seen a wave of kabooms against Shiite targets in recent days, with IS claiming responsibility for some.
At least 28 people were killed on Wednesday when boom-mobiles went off near a maternity hospital and a service station in areas of the capital where Shiites have frequently been targeted.
The bloodshed has raised fears of further attacks during the Ashura religious ritual in early November, when hundreds of thousands of Shiite faithful converge on the holy city of Karbala on foot.