The bishops of Oriental Churches on Thursday demanded Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and “other …

Iraqi Christians who fled violence in their village arrive at a church in the Kurdish city of Erbil on Thursday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

President Obama: U.S. Military Authorized to Make Targeted Airstrikes in Northern Iraq

*Obama: Airstrikes to Be Taken Only if Necessary

*Obama: U.S. Can't Turn Blind Eye to Potential Act of Genocide

MORE TO COME

The Obama administration was preparing plans late Thursday for airstrikes against Islamist militants in northern Iraq, and began an emergency airdrop of water and food to members of a religious minority trapped in the mountains by advancing Islamist militants, U.S. officials said.

The sudden acceleration of U.S. military activity reflected White House concern over a burgeoning crisis in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of Iraq as the militant group calling itself Islamic State closed in on the area and pressed an offensive against local forces, seizing areas long considered safe. Militants on Thursday took over the Mosul Dam, the country's largest, according to a local resident.

The administration was actively considering U.S. airstrikes against the militant group's positions to protect U.S. military and diplomatic personnel working in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. Pentagon officials said no U.S. strikes had begun by Thursday evening. An Iraqi military official said the Iraqi air force conducted some airstrikes Thursday.

Baghdad, Iraq, Aug 7, 2014 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The seizure of Iraq’s largest Christian town has prompted a mass exodus of refugees, which a leading Catholic bishop described as a Way of the Cross that could become a genocide unless the global community intervenes.   “They are facing a human catastrophe and risk a real genocide. They need water, food, shelter,” Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Babylon said in an Aug. 7 open letter.
“We appeal with sadness and pain to the conscience of all, and all people of good will and the United Nations and the European Union, to save these innocent persons from death,” he said. “We hope it is not too late!” His letter follows the fall of the city of Qaraqoush to forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – known as ISIS – on Wednesday night. The town was one of Iraq’s largest Christian towns until the Kurdish military forces known as the Peshmerga withdrew from it.

Mourners gather during the funeral of Colonel Dani Harb (portrait), killed in recent clashes in Arsal, in the capital Beirut on August 6, 2014 (AFP

Syrian refugees sit in the back of a pick-up truck as they drive through the Lebanese village of Labweh in the Bekaa Valley on August 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)

A Syrian refugee girl sits on cement blocks amid damage and burnt tents from the fighting between Lebanese army soldiers and Islamist militants in the Sunni Muslim border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley August 7, 2014

A general view shows damage and burnt tents for Syrian refugees from the fighting between Lebanese army soldiers and Islamist militants in the Sunni Muslim border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley

Labweh (Lebanon) (AFP) - Hundreds of Syrian refugees headed home from Lebanon's border town of Arsal and dozens of wounded were evacuated Thursday during a truce in fighting between jihadists and Lebanese soldiers.

The truce, announced Wednesday night by Sunni clerics serving as mediators, has raised hopes of an end to the worst violence in the area since the conflict in neighbouring Syria erupted in March 2011.

At least 17 soldiers have been killed battling the jihadists, who are reportedly from several different extremist groups fighting in Syria.

Another 22 soldiers have been captured, although three were freed Wednesday.

The exodus of refugees, who had reportedly sought to leave Arsal even before the clashes, was being facilitated by Lebanese authorities and a Syrian nun close to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Sister Agnes told AFP that 1,700 men, women and children, mostly from the Qalamun area just across the border from Arsal, were en route to the Masnaa border crossing. Another 3,000 refugees among the 47,000 sheltering in Arsal have also asked to leave to Syria, she said. - 44 wounded evacuated -

The departure of the refugees came as the truce appeared to be holding and no clashes were reported on Thursday.

The truce was announced by the mediators, who said the gunmen in control of the town had agreed to withdraw and that soldiers and policemen being held hostage would be released."The remaining armed men have undertaken to leave Arsal completely within 24 hours," cleric Samih Ezzedine said on Wednesday night.

"All the prisoners are alive and despite difficult negotiations we have clear and positive promises they will be released."