Jihadists carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraqi village of Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority, officials said on Saturday.

Jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group are carrying out attacks against minorities in Iraq's Nineveh province, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

"We have information from multiple sources, in the region and through intelligence, that (on Friday) afternoon, a convoy of (IS) armed men entered this village," senior Iraqi official Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.

"They took their revenge on its inhabitants, who happened to be mostly Yazidis who did not flee their homes," Zebari said, referring to a religious community regarded as heretics by jihadists.

"They committed a massacre against the people," he said. "Around 80 of them have been killed."

Harim Kamal Agha, a senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party in Dohuk province, which borders Nineveh, put the death toll at 81 and said the militants had taken women to prisons they control.

And Mohsen Tawwal, a Yazidi fighter, told AFP by telephone that he saw a large number of bodies in the village.

"We made it into a part of Kocho village, where residents were under siege, but we were too late," he said.

"There were corpses everywhere. We only managed to get two people out alive. The rest had all been killed."

Jihadist-led insurgents launched a major offensive in June that began in Nineveh and swept security forces aside, overrunning large areas of five provinces.

In one of the most dramatic chapters of the conflict, the militants stormed the Sinjar area of northwestern Iraq earlier this month prompting tens of thousands of people, many of them Yazidis, to take refugee in the mountains.

Kurdish fighters on the ground and US air strikes eventually helped most of those trapped to escape after more than 10 days under siege, but some remain in the mountains.

Britain to keep up Iraq surveillance flights
Nicosia (AFP) Aug 16, 2014 - Britain is to keep up its surveillance flights over northern Iraq to try to stop more minority groups coming under jihadist attack, Defence Minister Michael Fallon said on Saturday.

Fallon was speaking on a visit to Cyprus from which Britain has been making its aid and surveillance flights over Iraq out of its sovereign air base at Akrotiri on the south coast.

Britain dropped more than a hundred tonnes of tents and water to Yazidi Kurds trapped in the Sinjar mountains of northwestern Iraq earlier this month by the advancing jihadists.

"We are continuing surveillance of northern Iraq so we can have a better picture of the humanitarian needs there," Fallon said, after talks with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades.

"We are flying aircraft over Iraq so we all have a better understanding of where the next threat is coming from and whether there are other minority groups that face the kind of barbaric terrorism that we have seen," he said, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Britain deployed Tornado fighter jets to Akrotiri earlier this month for its Iraq surveillance flights.

They have now been joined by the Royal Air Force's most modern surveillance aircraft, the Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint, Fallon told Sky News earlier.

Fallon held talks with commanders at Akrotiri before heading to the meeting with Anastasiades at his residence in the hill resort of Troodos.

Britain retained two sovereign base areas on Cyprus when the Mediterranean island won independence in 1960.

Canada transports allied military equipment to Kurds
Ottawa (AFP) Aug 15, 2014 - Two Canadian military transport jumbo jets, along with their crew of 30, were deployed Friday to deliver allies' arms to Iraqi Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists.

The Royal Canadian Air Force CC-130J Hercules and a CC-177 Globemaster departed a base in Trenton east of Toronto.

The United States, France and Britain have agreed to deliver military equipment to Iraqi Kurds, while Germany pledged "non-lethal" equipment such as armored vehicles, helmets and flak jackets.

Six jihadists join UN Al-Qaeda sanctions list
United Nations, United States (AFP) Aug 15, 2014 - The UN Security Council on Friday added the names of six Islamic extremists to a sanctions list, citing their alleged ties to the so-called Islamic State or its rival the Al-Nusra Front.

- Abdelrahman Muhamad Zafir al Jahani, Al-Qaeda envoy to Syria -

One of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, Abdelrahman Mouhamad Zafir al Dabidi al Jahani traveled to Syria in mid-2013 as a senior al-Qaeda leader offering support to jihadists. According to US officials, he was named as part of a group seeking to reconcile extremists from the Al-Nusra Front and ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He is listed for "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities" by the Al-Nusra Front in Syria.

- Hajjaj Bin Fahd Al Ajmi - Al-Nusra financier -

A Kuwaiti national already targeted by US sanctions, Hajjaj bin Fahd al Ajmi has been described as a funnel for financial aid to Al-Nusra in Syria. He is said to travel regularly to Syria from Kuwait to deliver money and installed Kuwaiti nationals in Al-Nusra leadership positions.

- Abu Mohammed al Adnani - ISIS spokesman -

As spokesman for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Adnani proclaimed the caliphate on June 29 and announced that it would be known simply as the Islamic State. He has also called on followers to take Baghdad in video recordings.

His real name is thought to be Taha Sobhi Falaha, born in 1977 in Banash, a village in near the Syrian city of Aleppo. He was first the spokesman of ISIS and was later appointed an emir.

- Said Arif, recruiter for Syria's battlefields -

Algerian-born Said Arif is said to be a leader in the recruitment of foreign fighters -- many from France -- to Syria. He was arrested in Damascus in 2003 and sent to France to face trial for terrorism-related crimes. He was convicted in 2007 but managed to flee in October 2012 while under house arrest in France. He is listed for his ties to Al-Nusra.

- Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al Sharekh, Al-Qaeda's man in Syria -

A Saudi national, Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al Sharekh is better know as Sanafi al Nasr and is allegedly the head of Al-Qaeda operations in Syria, with connections to Pakistan. He is listed for his involvement with the Al-Nusra Front in Syria.

- Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali, Al-Nusra financier -

Based in Kuwait, Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali has collected large donations from Kuwait to support Al-Nusra in Syria, most notably for purchases of arms and equipment. He also arranged travel for a number of foreign fighters to Syria.