US: Condition of Iraqi refugees 'better than feared'
American troops in Iraq say the condition of refugees on Mount Sinjar is "better than feared".
The US is now unlikely to stage a rescue operation, after special forces and aid workers found fewer people than expected sheltering on the mountain.
It had been feared that up to 30,000 had fled from Islamic State fighters who had threatened 'genocide'.
The London Independent foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn says the turmoil in Iraq is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Mr Cockburn said: "It's bleak, it's all too easy to be a professional pessimist about Iraq but I'm afraid the pessimists generally win out.
"The problem is the country is genuinely divided, people are terrified of each other".
"ISIS now runs an area about the size of Great Britain - with about five or six million people - it's recruiting soldiers by the day," he added.
