Team Of US Marines And Army Special Forces Land On Mountain Where Iraqi Civilians Are Stranded

A small team of U.S. Marines and Army Special Forces landed briefly Wednesday on the mountaintop where Iraqi civilians have been stranded while fleeing ISIS militants, The Guardian reports.

The move, involving less than 20 U.S. personnel, was an assessment of the area for a possible rescue operation to come, reported the Wall Street Journal's Dion Nissenbaum, citing Pentagon officials.

The team flew in on V-22 Osprey helicopters, and left a short time later, The Guardian reported. A British official also told the paper that British SAS soldiers were in the area to "gather intelligence."

Atop Mt. Sinjar in Iraq's north, members of the Yazidi religious minority took refuge last week to escape militants who were threatening "genocide." As many as 40,000 civilians have been trapped on Sinjar, with some dying of starvation and dehydration.

Last week, President Obama announced that "America is coming to help" the Yazidis, and directed the Pentagon to air drop humanitarian aid and engage militants with targeted air strikes if U.S. personnel became threatened.