DHAKA: Dozens of people have been killed in an air strike in the rebel-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul, reports say.

At least 30 died when a drone attacked a prison used by the Islamic State (IS) as a base, sources told the BBC.

Iraqi state TV said 60 suspected militants had been killed, while al-Jazeera put the toll at about 70.

IS captured Mosul in June, at the start of an offensive that saw the jihadist group and allied Sunni rebels seize parts of northern and western Iraq.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces were also reportedly shelling eastern parts of Mosul on Wednesday.

Earlier, a Peshmerga commander warned that 50,000 members of the Yazidi religious minority trapped in mountains to the west faced death if they were not rescued soon.

The Yazidis fled to the mountains with little food or water after fighters from IS, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), overran the town of Sinjar at the weekend.

The Peshmerga commander, Jabbar Yawar, said many had already died, but did not give further details.

On Tuesday, the UN said it had received credible reports that 40 Yazidi children had died ‘as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration’ since Sunday.

BDST: 1838 HRS, AUG 06, 2014