Australia 'to welcome thousands fleeing death in Iraq and Syria'

Reports have emerged that Australia may become a new home for at least 4,400 refugees fleeing the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

A minimum of 2,200 resettlement places will be set aside for Iraqi refugees and another 2,200 for Syrian refugees, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

The newspaper said that Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is expected to announce the war-torn region will be the main focus for Australia's refugee program in 2014-15.

However, he said the refugees would be subjected to the normal security process.

Thousands of Yazidi refugees are still trapped on Mount Sinjar by Islamic State militants.

Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters backed by US fighter jets are battling to retake Iraq's largest dam, AFP has reported.

Kurdish forces attacked the IS fighters who wrested the Mosul dam from them a week earlier, a general told AFP.

"Kurdish peshmerga, with US air support, have seized control of the eastern side of the dam" complex, Major General Abdelrahman Korini told AFP, saying several jihadists had been killed.

Buoyed by the air strikes US President Barack Obama ordered last week, the peshmerga have tried to claw back the ground they lost since the start of August.

The dam on the Tigris provides electricity to much of the region and is crucial to irrigation in vast farming areas in Nineveh province.

The recapture of Mosul dam would be one of the most significant achievements in a fightback that is also getting international material support.