British prime minister Cameron under pressure to recall Parliament to act on Iraq

B July 14, 2014 - FILE photo of Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, during a visit to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, in Hampshire, England. Pressure is mounting for Cameron to do more on Iraq, with some members of his own party urging him to recall Parliament from its summer break to consider action against Islamic militants. (AP)

LONDON – Pressure mounted Monday for British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more on Iraq, with some members of his own party urging him to recall Parliament from its summer break to consider action against Islamic militants.

British cargo planes carrying drinking water and tents have dropped some emergency supplies to the Yazidi community, a minority group besieged by Islamic militants in the Sinjar mountains in northern Iraq. But the efforts stalled because crewmembers were unable to find a place to drop supplies amid a crush of desperate people.

With media replete with stories of suffering and atrocities, Britain's government is being called to account. The Daily Mail newspaper featured a photograph of the prime minister walking barefoot down a beach under the headline: "Now UK must join bomb raids on fanatics, say MPs."

Lawmaker Conor Burns is leading the charge for a recall of Parliament, insisting that providing supplies is not enough to help "brother and sister Christians."

"These people are being beheaded ... and our only response is to drop some food or water on them," he said.

Other European leaders were also feeling the pressure. France, which made its first delivery of aid to Iraq on Sunday, called for an urgent meeting of European Union foreign ministers to consider Kurdish requests for arms and an aid airlift to northern Iraq.

The ambassadors of the EU's 28-member nations plan an emergency meeting on the security situation in Iraq, Gaza and Ukraine on Tuesday.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton could call a meeting of higher-level officials if a majority of the ambassadors request it. However, no such decision is expected, an EU official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.