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Desperate Iraqi Christians yesterday called for urgent military action from Britain and America, begging for our troops to be sent in to save them from rampaging Islamic extremists.

US President Barack Obama has already launched airstrikes in a bid to halt a feared genocide by jihadis from the hate-filled Islamic State – formerly known as Isis – but locals said it was “too little too late”.

Terrified members of the minority Assyrian community in the north have been targeted, alongside the Yazidi sect, with thousands forced to flee for their lives amid claims of beheadings and crucifixions.

Assyrian civil engineer Esho Esho, 39, used to work in America but returned to his home country in 2012.

Speaking from the Iraqi Kurdistan capital city of Erbil, he called for the return of Western ground troops to bolster the poorly ­organised Iraqi army that has been badly overrun by IS fighters in recent months.

He said: “The Americans, British, other ­European countries need to come back to Iraq and finish what they started.

“You don’t leave a job before you finish and they have caused this mess.

“The Iraqi army may be well equipped but they don’t know how to use the equipment and they are not organised.

“They cannot cope. We have seen this town expand by more than 100,000 people in a day. There are tents everywhere, people sleeping in the streets. My family back in the US ring me every day begging me to come home but I cannot leave. I would feel too guilty.

“International forces are needed now on the ground to stop the IS fighters. Anyone in their path, any minority, is at risk.”

(Image: Getty)

In mountains in the north west Sinjar region up to 250,000 escapees were trapped at the hands of the Sunni Muslim IS militants, hell-bent on killing non-believers.

President Obama last week announced America was “coming to help” the Christians at risk and Prime Minister David Cameron also came under pressure from senior MPs to announce British military action.

Another Assyrian in Erbil, Savina Dawood, 24, said Iraqi Christians had more security under dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, but persecuted for their ethnicity as Assyrians, and that there was no freedom of speech and that they were prohibited to work politicaly.

She said IS fighters had so far failed to take over her town – but she had little doubt they would try again. She explained: “We are full of gratitude for the humanitarian aid, but it is not the solution to the problem. The situation is so desperate. We need an international military solution now.”

She revealed: “There are thousands of refugees in our town, living in the public park or church yards. They have been forced to leave their homes and have nothing with them. Their situation is really desperate.

“Some have witnessed some terrible things, beheadings, crucifixions and have seen family members killed.

“The American air strikes are just too little too late – and now thousands of people are dead or on the move.

“Many months ago it was clear that the Iraqi army could not stop IS fighters.”

(Image: Getty)

John George, a 26-year-old Assyrian, also told how he fled his home town of Qaraqosh after it came under IS fire.

He revealed his 37-year-old aunt was blown up on the day of her engagement as she fetched water from a pump in the town.

He said: “We really need help here in Iraq. My aunt was killed in an IS bomb attack. She was 37 and had just got engaged.

“Thankfully she had no children as she was not married. A four-year-old child and a 29-year-old were killed in the same attack. I have left and am in Erbil but I don’t know for how long I will be safe here.”

The crisis has prompted condemnation from religious leaders across the world including Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

On Friday the British Government instructed its citizens to leave parts of northern Iraq, including Erbil, as the Islamist militants advanced towards them.

The Government said the security ­situation could deteriorate quickly after fighting in the last two days to the south west of Erbil, where many Western oil workers and executives were based.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned on its website: “If you’re currently in these areas you should leave now. The security situation in the Kurdistan Region could deteriorate quickly.”