KIRKUK: Iraq launched a major operation on Saturday to liberate a militants besieged town, as US Secretary of State John Kerry called for a global coalition to combat the "genocidal" militants.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned that the West would be the next IS target unless swift action is taken, after Britain raised its terror alert level over the threat of militants attacks.
The drive to break the more than two-month siege of Amerli came as an NGO said that the Islamic State (IS) militants group, which has surrounded the Shiite Turkmen-majority town, sold at least 27 women in Syria after kidnapping them in Iraq.
In Syria, clashes broke out between Philippine UN peacekeepers and another militants group, the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front which is also holding dozens of Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage.
Iraqi security forces, thousands of Shiite militiamen and Kurdish peshmerga fighters are all taking part in the operation to lift the jihadist blockade of Amerli.
The town has been besieged since IS-led militants launched a major offensive in Iraq in June, sources said.
Residents face major shortages of food and water, and are in danger both because of their Shiite faith, which militants consider heresy, and their resistance to the militants, which has drawn harsh retribution elsewhere.
The United States began carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq earlier this month, but has yet to decide if it will expand that military action into Syria.
Army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi said the anti - militants operation had been launched with Iraqi air support, and vowed that "we will be victorious over them".
Writing in the New York Times, Kerry urged "a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations" to combat IS.
"What's needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force," he said.
Kerry said he and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel would meet European counterparts on the sidelines of an upcoming NATO summit to enlist assistance, and then travel to the Middle East to build support "among the countries that are most directly threatened".
US President Barack Obama has acknowledged that Washington has no strategy yet to tackle IS, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in large swathes of territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.
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