DHAKA: EU foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss plans on providing arms to Iraqi Kurds against an extremist insurgency.

France and the US have already begun to supply weapons to the Kurds, whose Peshmerga fighters are trying to halt an advance by Islamic State militants, reports the BBC.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki resigned and conceded power to Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s deputy speaker.

Meanwhile, the governor of Dohuk province Farhad Atrushi has warned of a ‘genocide’.

“We have hundreds of thousands (of refugees). We’re going to face an international humanitarian catastrophe because many of these kids and children will die,” said Farhad.

The UN says over a million Iraqis remain displaced from their homes after IS militants took over large parts of northern Iraq.

BDST: 1919 HRS, AUG 15, 2104