BBC news 2014-08-09 加文本

BBC news 2014-08-09

BBC News with David Austin.

The Pentagon has confirmed that the United States' military has continued to attack Islamic State militant targets in northern Iraq. In a statement, Press Secretary John Kirby said the 2 additional air strikes were carried out to defend the city of Erbil where US personnel are based. David Willis reports from Washington.

Islamist fighters are thought to be less than 30 miles outside Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a major hub for US oil companies. The US followed up an earlier air strike on an Islamic State artillery position using drones and fighter jets. Several of the fighters were killed and according to American officials, a 7-vehicle convoy was destroyed.

Kurdish authorities say the Islamic State forces have now seized control of Iraq's biggest dam in nearby Mosul which could allow them to flood cities and cut off vital water and electricity supplies. The American intervention follows rising international concern over the plight of Iraq Christian and Yazidi religious minorities. The United States has dropped emergency food aid to tens of thousands of refugees trapped on a remote mountain side. Britain and France have also pledged to help the civilian population. The UN is making urgent preparations for a humanitarian corridor.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the resumption of rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and expressed deep disappointment for the 3-day ceasefire was not extended. He urged all parties not to resort to further military action. The BBC's Lyse Doucet in Jerusalem says Israel and Hamas disagree about the ceasefire.

Well, it is widely assumed that both sides did want the ceasefire, they do want this war to end, but particularly on the side of Hamas, they don't want a deal which just ceases fire that is to stop to see Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strips and stop the Hamas send other rocket fire into Israel. It wants a bigger deal, it wants a deal which most of all ends the 7-year blockade, the siege as they call it of the Gaza Strip.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says 40,000 people are living in horrific conditions in a UN refugee camp in Bantiu in South Sudan. The Security Council has expressed alarm over the situation. Emmanuel Igunza reports.

Bantiu has changed hands many times since fighting broke out in South Sudan amid last December. Thousands of people have sought refuge in a UN camp in the town situated in the oil-rich Unity State. And with the onset of rains, MSF says the already harsh and overcrowded conditions in the camp have now become deplorable. MSF says some people desperately tried to use their cooking pots to scoop up the water while others slept or standing upholding the children away from the waters. Fighting between government and rebel troops in South Sudan has displaced at least 1.5 million people.

World News from the BBC.

Suspected al-Qaeda militants in southeast Yemen have abducted and killed at least 14 soldiers returning home from duty in the east of the country. The soldiers were on leave when the gunmen ambushed the bus they were traveling in.

The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus a national emergency and approved more than 11 million dollars of funds to contain it. The World Health Organization estimates around 961 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. Will Ross reports from Lagos.

In Liberia, soldiers have joined the fight against the deadly Ebola virus. There is a state of emergency and they're stopping people traveling, desperate measures to try to prevent the spread of Ebola. Some hospitals have closed with staff too scared to work. At Lagos Airport in Nigeria, there are screening passengers for symptoms. If they have been doing this last month, an infected man from Liberia might have been intercepted. He died and health workers who treated him are now fighting for their lives. There is not yet a cure for Ebola, but Nigeria has appealed for an experimental drug to be made available.

Russia has been warned by the United States and Britain not to use humanitarian assistance as a pretext to invade eastern Ukraine. The US ambassador to the UN said any further unilateral intervention by Russia in eastern Ukraine would be completely unacceptable. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said military exercises in southern Russia had ended and that forces will return into their permanent base.

The United States has said that the number of children trying to enter the country illegally through its southern border has decreased over the past 2 months, but the White House spokeswoman warned for the surge in illegal child immigration might resume once the northern hemisphere summer ended and temperatures in the desert areas near the Mexican border declined.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.