A US and UK humanitarian mission to rescue thousands of Yazidis trapped in Iraq is "far less likely" to take place after it has been revealed fewer are stranded than previously feared.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK's plans needed to be "flexible" for the "complicated humanitarian mission" and stressed the need to continue delivering aid to refugees on Mount Sinjar.
The PM, who has resisted calls for military intervention, will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee later to discuss the situation further.
The UK has successfully completed seven aid airdrops of clean water, shelter and solar lanterns, and is sending a "small number" of RAF Chinook helicopters to the region.
A map detailing the Sinjar mountains It has already sent RAF Tornado jets equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment to gather intelligence.
"What our plans need to do is to make sure that we have got the assets in place to help out in the right way and that's why last night one of our Tornados was gathering information about the situation, that's why it's important our Chinooks are in place and available if needed," Mr Cameron said.
He had said "detailed plans" were being made for an international mission to rescue the stranded Yazidis.
Members of the Yazidi sect hold a banner asking for international help But Sky's Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge said: "Today, I am told that just like the Americans, it is now unlikely that the UK government is going to carry out a rescue mission, and that's simply because the information has changed."
A US assessment of the situation has found fewer Yazidis remain trapped on the mountain than previously thought.
Some 5,000 refugees remain stranded there, according to Sky sources. Some live there, while around 1,000 are being rescued every night by Iraqi forces.
Areas the Islamic State has launched offensives and wants to make one state It had previously been thought there were between 20,000 and 30,000 trapped on Mount Sinjar after fleeing Sunni militants of the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
IS fighters have threatened the ancient religious group with death if they failed to convert to Islam.
The Pentagon said an "evacuation mission is far less likely" given that humanitarian aid drops, airstrikes on IS fighters and the efforts of Peshmerga fighters had allowed many Yazidis to escape.
Mr Cameron at a UK aid Disaster Response Centre at Kemble Airport, earlier Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdish government's high representative to the UK, told Sky News while the new refugee figures spelled "good news", up to two million displaced civilians remained "in a dire situation" in the Kurdistan region.
Her comments came as the United Nations ramped up its assessment of the crisis to level 3 - its highest level of emergency - and condemned the "barbaric acts" of sexual violence IS fighters have reportedly inflicted on minority groups.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the Iraqi government had "received atrocious accounts on the abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, Turkomen and Shabak women and girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes".
"Some 1,500 Yazidis and Christians may have been forced into sexual slavery," he added.
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