Extremists Beaten Back After Iraq Airstrikes

Islamic extremists have been forced out of two towns in northern Iraq by Kurdish troops - amid a deepening political crisis in the country.

The militants were driven out of Makhmour and al Gweir, near Irbil, after fighters were aided by a series of US airstrikes targeting armed vehicles.

The recapturing of the towns came as embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki appeared on TV  to accuse the new President of violating the constitution.

US soldiers watch as halal meals are parachuted to the ground in Iraq

In a surprise speech, Mr al Maliki resisted calls to resign amid the jihadist insurgency and declared he will file a legal complaint against Fuad Masum.

He accuses him of failing to name a Prime Minister from the country's largest parliamentary faction by Sunday's deadline.

The US, which has urged Iraq to form an inclusive government, immediately issued a statement backing President Masum.

The political turmoil comes amid mounting evidence of the slaughter of minority Christians and Yazidis by Islamic extremists.

Photographs taken in the north of the country appear to show crucifixions and beheadings, as well as a series of executions by gunfire.

Iraq's human rights minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani said accounts from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar suggested hundreds had been slaughtered.

Yazidi refugees approach the food bundles on the ground

"Some of the victims, including women and children, were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar," he said.

The Australian newspaper also featured a photograph purporting to show the nine-year-old son of terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, carrying the head of a Syrian soldier.

The picture was apparently posted on Twitter by Sharrouf, a convicted terrorist, who was raised in Sydney.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the photograph was further evidence of "just how barbaric" the militants were.

As the world watched the images from Iraq in horror, a Downing Street source told Sky News David Cameron would resist pressure to recall Parliament to discuss miltary action.

"Our focus is humanitarian support," the source said.

Refugees flee the extremists carving a bloody path through northern Iraq

"The key priority is getting support to people in desperate need."

Tory backbencher Conor Burns said the Government's response so far, of ruling out military intervention and air dropping supplies, was "not strong enough".

"These people are being beheaded by people from IS, and our only response is to drop some food or water on them," the Bournemouth West MP said.

"I think the US and UK should be involved in airstrikes. I am not by any means advocating a ground war but I think we should put our special forces in there.

David Cameron has been urged to recall Parliament

"I think we should be answering positively requests from the Kurds to arm them. I think we should be looking at asylum."

Mr Burns said he did not know whether the Commons would support military action, but it was "worth trying".

"If Parliament decides we do not want to have anything to do with that, then let them say so," he said.

The former head of the army, Lord Dannatt, also backed a parliamentary recall, insisting Britain was "watching in horror" as atrocities were committed.

"In the face of a crisis of this scale, with the potential for so much human misery, this is not the moment for decision-makers to be on holiday," he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Yesterday, Downing Street announced that more UK advisers were being sent to the under-threat city of Irbil to help deal with the developing crisis.

The US has been carrying out airstrikes to protect the area, which is a Kurdish stronghold and major centre for the country's oil trade.

Overnight, US military planes conducted a fourth air drop of food and water for civilians besieged by jihadists on Mount Sinjar.

A C-17 and three C-130 cargo aircraft dropped 88 bundles of supplies that will provide "food and water for thousands of Iraqi citizens".

The militants have driven as many as 150,000 Yazidis from their homes into the Sinjar mountains, where they are cut off from food and water.

The jihadists have also kidnapped 300 women as slaves.

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