US fighter jets strike ISIS artillery in Iraq's Kurdistan

 Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah

08/ Aug/2014


US military aircraft have conducted an airstrike on artillery used by the forces of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) in northern Iraq on Friday

The strikes targeted ISIS fighters, a stationary convoy, mortars and artillery, the attack took place to help defend Kurdish forces near Erbil, Iraq according to statements from Pentagon's press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.

"The decision to strike was made by the US Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief," Kirby, said.

Two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near the city of Erbil. US personnel are based in the city.

The airstrikes ramped up America’s involvement in Iraq where ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, is seizing control of towns and key infrastructure in an advance that has forced hundreds of thousands to run for their lives.

 Meanwhile, the United Nations says it is working to try and open a humanitarian corridor in northern Iraq to allow those citizens who are trapped the opportunity to get to safety. Food aid was also delivered to the Yazidis people, who were suffering from a lack of food and dehydration.

The U.S. aircraft dropped 5,300 gallons of water and 8,000 ready-to-eat meals.

"Now that air drops have started, the UN in Iraq is urgently preparing a humanitarian corridor to allow those in need to flee the areas under threat," the top UN envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a statement.

 ISIS has easily swept the Iraqi army from Anbar province in the southwest of Iraq as well as much of northern Iraq and then blunted attempts by the Iraqi government to retake cities.

The Kurdish peshmerga was expected to be a more formidable force, but they have also lost ground to ISIS, including the vital Mosul dam, in recent days.

News of the second round of U.S. airstrikes came just after the governor of Irbil told CNN that ISIS may be as close as 30 kilometers (just over 18 miles) from the city of more than a million people.

The airstrikes began just hours after President Barack Obama authorized "targeted airstrikes," saying in a televised address late Thursday that the United States had an obligation to protect its personnel in Iraq and prevent a potential genocide of minority groups by ISIS.

 "I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq. And so even as we support Iraqis, as they take the flight to these terrorists, American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq," Obama said.

Around 40,000 Yazidis - members of the Kurdish community whose religious beliefs are a mix of ancient Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Christianity - sought refuge on Mount Sinjar last weekend after Islamic State fighters continued their march toward the Kurdish power center of Erbil.

Iraqi officials say more than 500 men were killed by the Al-Qaeda offshoot, and that around 70 children have died since the Yazidis sought refuge on Sinjar.

The critical Mosul Dam is now in the hands of ISIS fighters, authorities said, while 150 hundred miles to the east tens of thousands of Iraq's minority Yazidis were trapped on a mountain by ISIS fighters below who vowed to kill them.

Airstrikes are “very important” because ISIS fighters are well-armed and are outgunning the Kurdish forces, thanks to the weapons the militants seized from the Iraqi military in Mosul, Irbil Gov. Nawzad Hadi said.

The ruthless Jihadist group is reportedly targeting any ethnic and religious minorities - including Shabaks, Turkmens, Yazidis, and Christians - that refuse to bend to its strict brand of Islam. The Sunni militants swept through northern and central Iraq in mid-June, sending government troops fleeing

UN officials said around 200,000 new refugees are seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north from Islamic State forces. The Sunni militant group said in a statement that it had made more than a dozen military gains over the past five days.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/iraq-options/
http://rt.com/news/179016-us-strike-iraq-jets/