Aid helicopter in Mount Sinjar crashes on take-off

An Iraqi helicopter carrying aid to Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq crashed on Tuesday afternoon, an Iraqi MP's aide told Anadolu Agency.

Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi representative in the Iraqi parliament, was among the passengers on the helicopter, along with refugees and journalists.

The pilot was killed, according to Dakhil’s chief of staff Hassan Omar, but all 20 of the other passengers survived.

Three children were taken to hospital in critical condition, reported Kurdish news site Rudaw.

The Iraqi military said the Russian-made MI-17 helicopter crashed because too many people attempted to board it.

"The helicopter delivered aid to the people stranded in Sinjar and too many people boarded it and it hit the mountain during takeoff," said a statement from the Iraqi army.

Armed groups linked to the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, captured Iraq's Sinjar and Rabia in the Nineveh province last week after fierce clashes, forcing thousands of Iraqis including Turkmen, Arabs and Ezidis to flee.

The U.S. has been hitting IS targets since U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the military to carry out airstrikes last week in support of U.S. personnel in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, and forces in Iraq.