The United States says a rescue mission of displaced people from Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq is unlikely after determining there are fewer people stranded there than previously thought.
The Pentagon said in a statement that U.S. officials who visited the mountain on August 13 say the several thousand people living there are in relatively good condition.
It was previously thought that there were tens of thousands of minority Yazidis and Christians on the mountain.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel credited airdrops of water and food of sustaining those on Mount Sinjar and said U.S. air strikes had pushed back Islamic State militants, allowing thousands to escape the mountain.
The United States had been considering a rescue mission on the mountain in the belief that their situation was dire.
Hagel said U.S. military and relief efforts will continue.