BAGHDAD -- Iraq's outgoing prime minister pledged Monday to turn his country into "a big grave" for Sunni militants from the Islamic State group and commended security forces who achieved a rare victory over insurgents by ending the siege of a Shiite town.
Nouri al-Maliki made the comments during an unannounced visit to the northern community of Amirli, where he was greeted with hugs. A day earlier, Iraqi forces backed by Iran-allied Shiite militias and U.S. airstrikes broke a two-month siege of the town where some 15,000 Shiite Turkmens had been stranded.
In footage aired on state TV, al-Maliki was shown sitting at a wooden desk in front of a large poster of Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistsani, ordering promotions and awards for those who fought in the battle.
"I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers," he told a gathering of fighters in a large hall as they chanted Shiite religious slogans. He vowed to root out Sunni militants from areas they control in the country.
"All Iraq will be a grave for those infidels, and we will send all the IS [Islamic State] gang to death," he added.
Hours before the visit, humanitarian aid began flowing to the town.
Four trucks loaded with food and medicine arrived from the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Red Crescent, according to Ali al-Bayati, who heads the aid organization called the Turkmen Saving Foundation. Soldiers began delivering food to families in their houses Sunday night.
"The situation is getting back to normal, but gradually," al-Bayati said. "Some people have come out from their houses and walked in the street. Shops are still closed, but people are happy to see their city secured by Iraqi security forces."
Shiite Turkmen lawmaker Fawzi Akram al-Tarzi said the U.S. airstrikes and Iranian support for Iraqi forces "have played a positive role in defeating the terrorists," although he said the airstrikes "came late" in the battle.
President Barack Obama sent official notification Monday to Congress of his order for last week's airstrikes and humanitarian aid drops to help Iraqis threatened by Islamic State militants. Such notifications are required by law and are considered a formality.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Central Command said that American military forces continued to attack Islamic militant targets, using fighter and attack aircraft to conduct three airstrikes Sunday and Monday near Mosul Dam.
It said the strikes destroyed three trucks, severely damaged another, destroyed an armed vehicle and took out a mortar position near the dam. The Central Command said all aircraft exited the strike area safely.
On Monday, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen retook the nearby town of Suleiman Beg following fierce clashes with Sunni militants, Al-Tarzi said.
"The brave people of Amirli have made their town a new Stalingrad," he added, referring to the former name of the Russian city of Volgograd, famous for resisting a long siege by the German military during World War II. "Amirli people have clearly shown that Iraqis could not be intimidated by terrorists."
Since early this year, Iraq has faced a growing Sunni insurgency led by an al-Qaida-breakaway group, the Islamic State. With help from allied militants, they have taken over territory in the country's north and west and created Iraq's worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.
In June, a summer offensive stunned Iraqi security forces and the military, which melted away and withdrew as the Islamic State group overran the northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit, as well as small towns and villages on their path.
Since then, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias have been fighting the militants without achieving significant progress on the ground.
Thousands of fighters from Iranian-backed Shiite militias have answered a call by al-Sistani to join government forces in the fight.
The U.S. airstrikes that helped liberate Amirli were the first to hit areas where Iranian-backed militias were fighting Sunni militants, possibly outlining an unlikely alliance between the U.S. and Shiite militiamen who once fought American soldiers in Iraq.
Military advisers from Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been guiding Shiite militiamen in artillery attacks on Sunni positions.
Since Aug. 8, the U.S. has carried out at least 120 airstrikes with aircraft and unmanned drones. The American military has focused on areas bordering the self-ruled northern Kurdish region where Kurdish forces have been fighting the militants.
After Germany decided Sunday to send 16,000 assault rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of anti-tank weapons and several armored vehicles to forces fighting the Islamic State group, breaking with Germany's previous reluctance to send weapons into conflicts, Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers that it's in Germany's interests to arm the Kurdish fighters who are battling Islamic extremists.
Merkel on Monday told a special session of parliament the decision was "very carefully weighed."
She said German officials faced a choice between "taking no risks, not delivering [weapons] and ultimately accepting the expansion of terror" or supporting those fighting the extremists.
Parliament held a nonbinding vote, approving the move. Some opposition lawmakers objected, however, warning that the weapons could end up in the wrong hands.
A video published online Sunday showed what appeared to be anti-tank missiles with German inscriptions at the site of a Syrian government air base that was captured by fighters from the Islamic State group last week.
The video couldn't immediately be verified but appeared to be consistent with events on the ground.
Also Monday, the United Nations said that at least 1,420 Iraqis were reported killed in violence in August, down from the previous month.
The U.N. mission to Iraq, known as UNAMI, said in its monthly statement that the death toll includes 1,265 civilians and 155 members of Iraq's security forces. Another 1,370 were wounded, including 1,198 civilians.
July's death toll stood at 1,737 people. In June, 2,400 were killed as Sunni militants swept across the country, the highest figure since at least April 2005.
The statement said the figures are the "absolute minimum" number of casualties and do not include deaths in the western Anbar province or other parts of northern Iraq that have been held by militants for months. It added: "The actual figures could be significantly higher."
The U.N.'s top human-rights body on Monday overwhelmingly approved the Iraqi government's request for an investigation into alleged crimes against civilians committed by the Islamic State group.
Diplomats agreed by unanimous consent to approve a nearly $1.2 million U.N. fact-finding mission at a daylong special session of the 47-nation Human Rights Council about Iraq and the extremist group.
Iraq's request for the U.N. to investigate alleged abuses by the Islamic State was included in a resolution that more broadly condemns the group's severe tactics but also calls on Iraq's government to protect human rights.
Its aim is to provide the Geneva-based council with a report and evidence next March that could shed further light on Iraqi atrocities and be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution.
Flavia Pansieri, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, said the militants' widespread, systematic persecution of ethnic and religious groups likely amounts to a crime against humanity. She said Iraqi government forces' execution of detainees and its shelling of civilian areas may also amount to war crimes.
"We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraq's human-rights minister, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, said shortly before the vote.
He said his country needs the world's support because the group "is not an Iraqi phenomenon, it is a transnational organization that is an imminent danger for all countries of the world."
The top U.N. advocate for children afflicted by war said Monday that the Islamic State was using them as informers, checkpoint sentries and, in some cases, suicide bombers.
The advocate, Leila Zerrougui, the special representative of the secretary general for children and armed conflict, also said that the United Nations had received reports that the Islamic State had abducted girls from minority communities and forced them into marriage, but that it had been unable to verify those reports.
Pansieri told the Human Rights Council that the Islamic State had ordered strict rules for women living in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and other areas in its control.
"Women are not allowed to walk in the street without the presence of a male guardian, and there are more and more reports of women being beaten" for infractions, she said.
Back in Iraq late Monday night, a car bomb went off in the Baghdad commercial district of Baiyaa, killing nine people and wounding 20, police said.
Minutes later, another car bomb near a restaurant and cafe killed seven people and wounded 16 in the Amil neighborhood.
Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Information for this article was contributed by Sameer N. Yacoub, Sinan Salaheddin and staff members of The Associated Press and by Somini Sengupta of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/02/2014