Iraq crisis: Shia and Kurdish forces move against IS

Iraqi Shia militias and Kurdish forces are continuing their advance against Islamic State militants after breaking the siege of Amerli in northern Iraq, the BBC reported.

A BBC team entered the town on Monday, finding residents who had endured more than two months under siege.

The joint forces have also seized the militant stronghold of Suleiman Beg.

Meanwhile Amnesty International says that it has uncovered new evidence that Islamic State have launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the north.

"The Islamic State (IS) is carrying out despicable crimes and has transformed rural areas of [the northern region of] Sinjar into blood-soaked killing fields in its brutal campaign to obliterate all trace of non-Arabs and non-Sunni Muslims," Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said.

The UN is sending a team to Iraq to investigate "acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale."

Residents in Amerli were threatened with a massacre after resisting IS. The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, who entered the town on Monday, found residents happy to be reunited with their families.

They told him there was a huge amount of work to do to get back to normal.