U.S. Troops 'Far Less Likely' To Aid In Northern Iraq Rescue Mission, Pentagon Says

An emergency evacuation mission for refugees in northern Iraq is "far less likely" after U.S. troops evaluated the area on Wednesday, the Pentagon reported.

Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby confirmed Wednesday evening that 20 U.S. soldiers had visited the area of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq after there were reports that thousands of refugees, including members of the Yazidi religious sect, were seeking shelter on the mountain after being forced from their villages by members of the Islamic State.

U.S. soldiers visited the area to determine if an emergency evacuation was necessary, as there had been reports of starvation, thirst and death as the refugees continued to be trapped on the mountain.

Kirby said that U.S. soldiers found there were less refugees "than previously feared," as the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces have been carrying out rescue missions for the past several days and have managed to greatly reduce the amount of people stuck on the mountain.

"The Yazidis who remain are in better condition than previously believed and continue to have access to the food and water that we have dropped," Kirby added.

The status of those on the mountain comes as the United Nations declared the highest level of humanitarian crisis for Iraq, as Islamic State troops began clashing with government troops near Baghdad, killing at least four children on Thursday.

 U.N. special representative Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement that the new "level 3" humanitarian crisis in Iraq will trigger an additional influx of goods and services to the displaced in the country. Mladenov said the U.N. categorized the current crisis as a "level 3" due to the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe."