Sunni militants have seized a new Iraqi town just an hour from the capital Baghdad. Mansouriyat al-Jabal is home to four natural gas fields and is the latest in the north and west to fall under militant control. In a televised speech, the powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr vowed to “shake the ground” underneath advancing Sunni militants and expressed concern about foreign involvement in Iraq. ISIS forces are reportedly setting their sights on Iraq’s second-largest dam, in Haditha. The New York Times reports Iraqi forces guarding the dam have been ordered to prepare for opening the floodgates, despite the potential for widespread damage. ISIS militants already control a major dam up the Euphrates River in neighboring Syria. Along with dangerously low water levels, that could threaten a new humanitarian crisis. On a visit to Iraq, Ertharin Cousin of the United Nations World Food Programme voiced concern for the estimated half a million Iraqis displaced in recent weeks.

Ertharin Cousin: “These people didn’t have any place else to go, and they are depending upon the international community and the generosity of the people of this community for their survival. The challenge is that we do not have the necessary resources to provide the assistance that is required for a sustained period of time. We need the international community to continue to support our efforts here so that no family who has now come to find refuge goes without the basic food, water and other assistance needs that U.N. community and WFP is working to provide to them”.