The Lebanese Forces on Friday accused the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc led by MP Michel Aoun of “exaggerating” the threat posed to Christians by the jihadist Islamic State group, which has displaced thousands of Christians from the Iraqi city of Mosul.

“The bloc that is mourning over Christian presence has forgotten that the ISIL and it are two faces of the same coin. The ISIL is vacating Mosul of Christians while the Change and Reform bloc is vacating the presidency of Christian political presence,” the LF said in a statement recited in Maarab by MP Fadi Karam.

The Mosul dam is the biggest in Iraq and a strategic site that provides water and electricity to more than a million people in the north of the country.

Islamic State (IS) jihadists seized the dam on August 7 but Kurdish peshmerga fighters took it back on Sunday with support from U.S. air strikes.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters backed by federal forces and U.S. warplanes pressed a counter-offensive Monday against jihadists after retaking Iraq's largest dam, as the United States and Britain stepped up their military involvement.

The recapture of Mosul dam marks the biggest prize yet clawed back from Islamic State (IS) jihadists since they launched a major offensive in northern Iraq in June, sweeping Iraqi security forces aside.

Kurdish fighters backed by U.S. warplanes pushed back jihadists around Iraq's largest dam on Sunday, as Sunni Arab tribesmen and security forces fought the militants west of Baghdad.

Two months of violence have brought Iraq to the brink of breakup, and world powers relieved by the exit of divisive Premier Nuri al-Maliki were sending aid to the hundreds of thousands who have fled their homes as well as arms to the Kurds.

European Union foreign ministers are to meet on Friday to discuss the crisis in Iraq, the office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said, after key member states called for bolder action to help the country's civilians.

In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Ashton said the extraordinary meeting would "focus on the EU's response to major ongoing crises, focusing on Iraq and Ukraine."

Jihadists have seized Iraq's largest dam north of their hub of Mosul, giving them control over the supply of water and electricity for a vast area, officials said Friday.

"Mosul dam has been in insurgent hands since last night," said Holgard Hekmat, spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga force that previously guarded the key infrastructure.

Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish troops launched a large operation Thursday to free Amerli, a Turkmen town that has been besieged by jihadists for 50 days, officials said.

"The Iraqi army, (Shiite) volunteers and (Kurdish) peshmerga, equipped with heavy artillery and backed by the air force, have launched an operation to break the siege of Amerli and clear the neighboring town of Sulaiman Bek," the mayor of neighboring Tuz Khurmatu, Shallal Abdul Baban, told AFP.

Jihadists took over Iraq's largest Christian town and surrounding areas on Thursday and sent tens of thousands of panicked residents fleeing towards autonomous Kurdistan, officials and witnesses said.

Kurdish fighters from Iraq, Syria and Turkey joined forces in northern Iraq Wednesday in bid to reclaim areas lost to jihadists and rescue thousands of civilians stranded without food or water in nearby mountains.

The fate of the civilians, many of them from the Yazidi minority who fled to the Sinjar mountains after an attack by the Islamic State (IS) group at the weekend, has sparked international concern.

Islamic State fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks in northern Iraq, while 30 pro-government forces died battling the jihadists on other frontlines, officials said Saturday.

IS fighters, who control Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, attacked a nearby dam and oil facility on Friday but Kurdish peshmerga deployed in the area fought them off.