Telafer

Thousands of Turkmen refugees who fled ISIL violence in Telafer are being abandoned to their fate under 50 degrees of hot weather in the desert A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Iraq as Turkmens who fled the advance of the feared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are now succumbing to the region’s scorching summer sun as refugees.

The strategic mainly ethnic Turkmen town of Telafer in north of Iraq has completely fallen to Sunni Arab militants after days of heavy fighting, a local official and witnesses said on June 23.

"The town of Telafer and the airport... are completely under the control of the militants," the official said on condition of anoymity.

The number of Syrians taking refuge in Turkey has reached 1.05 million with no peaceful end in sight to the civil war-torn country, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said on June 19.

Atalay said a total of 22 camps in Turkey were hosting 218,632 refugees, with some camps hosting as many as 35,000-40,000 individuals.

The ethnically volatile northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk may soon fall, as militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been gaining ground, a leading representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) has warned.

Insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on June 15 after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed concern about the situation of Turkmens after Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants extended their offensive to Mosul’s Telafer district in northern Iraq, where many Turkmens live.