Thousands of minority Shia Turkmen had been holding out in Amerli, and the UN had expressed fears there could be a massacre if IS captured it.

The Shia Kataib Hezbollah militia is one of those fighting IS militants
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, who entered the town on Monday, found residents happy to be reunited with their families.
They told him there was a huge amount of work to do to get back to normal.
Our correspondent says there are still pockets of IS resistance in the area, meaning that travel to the town remains problematic.
Outgoing Prime Minister Nouri Maliki visited Amerli on Monday, saying: "Our enemy is retreating and our security forces backed by volunteers are advancing to purge further towns."
Correspondents say the recent advances are the biggest success by Iraqi and Kurdish forces against IS in recent months.

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