Downing Street said that the refugees faced a “desperate choice” between risking dying from a lack of food and water in temperatures of up to 122F (50C) on the mountainside or “descending into the barbaric hands of terrorists”.
Jonathan Krohn, from The Telegraph became the first Western journalist to reach the mountains and make contact with the refugees after flying onto Mount Sinjar in a relief helicopter.
He watched as hundreds of refugees ran toward the helicopter for one of the few deliveries of aid to make it to the mountain. The helicopter, which was sent by the Iraq Army Aviation force, dipped low, opened its gun bays and dropped water and food into the arms of the waiting refugees.
General Ahmed Ithwany, who led the mission, told The Telegraph “it is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead.”
Two American aid flights have also made it to the mountain, where they have dropped off more than 36,000 meals and 7,000 gallons of drinking water to help the refugees.
However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.
Handfuls of refugees have managed to escape on the helicopters but many are being left behind because the craft are unable to land on the rocky mountainside.
On Saturday night the first British aid was due to be dropped from a C130 transporter plane on to the mountainside. The aid included water, tents, solar lighting and purification equipment.
But despite the international efforts there were growing concerns that the aid so far delivered would not be enough to stem the growing humanitarian crisis.
Mr Cameron said that he is working with the United States on a plan to help get people off the mountain, amid speculation that British military personnel could become directly involved in the rescue effort. A spokesman for Downing Street said: “The long-term solution will involve getting these people to safety.”
President Barack Obama indicated on Saturday that air strikes on Iraq could continue for months to try to stem the crisis, as he said that the West could not “look away” from the plight of “countless innocent people facing a massacre”.
He warned that jihadists based in Iraq could mount attacks on “Western targets” as he admitted that intelligence agencies and governments around the world had underestimated Isis, now known as Islamic State.
He insisted, however, that the US would not put troops in Iraq. “I have been very clear that we are not going to have US combat troops in Iraq again,” he said. “We are going to maintain that because we should have learned a lesson from our long and immensely costly incursion into Iraq.”
However, Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, suggested that soldiers should be stationed in northern Iraq to help create a “safe area” for the refugees and said that Britain has a “moral obligation” to join the air strikes on Iraq.
He told The Telegraph: “In the face of a crisis of this scale, with the potential for so much human misery, this is not the moment for decision-makers to be on holiday. Parliament needs to be recalled and the West needs to face up to its responsibilities. We have to make sure that we do not come out of this wringing our hands at another terrible genocide and saying “next time, we must do better”. We are being put to the test now and history will be our judge.”
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By Jonathan Krohn, in Dohuk, Richard Spencer in Kalak, Steven Swinford and Patrick Sawer. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11023915/Iraq-crisis-150000-Yezidi-Kurds-refugees-surrounded-by-Islamic-extremists.html