Iraqi Kurdish soldiers prepare for a war in Dibega district near Erbil, Iraq, Aug. 8, 2014. U.S. aircraft bombed Islamic State artillery attacking Kurdish forces near Erbil on Friday. (Xinhua/Shang Le)
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Nine hours after U.S. President Barack Obama authorized targeted airstrikes against forces of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), U.S. warplanes bombed the Islamist fighters in two rounds of strikes near the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Friday.
The Pentagon said the U.S. military expanded its campaign against the Islamist militants, with fighter jets and drones conducting two additional airstrikes near Erbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
The second round of airstrikes "successfully eliminated" the ISIL militants and destroyed "a stationary ISIL convoy of seven vehicles" and mortar positions being used by the extremist group to shell Kurdish forces, the Pentagon said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
"The aircraft executed two planned passes. On both runs, each aircraft dropped one laser guided bomb making a total of eight bombs dropped on target neutralizing the mortar and convoy," it said.
The new round of attacks came hours after the dropping of two 500-pound laser-guided bombs near Erbil.
The first strikes took place at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT), when two F/A-18 aircraft from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Friday morning, adding that "ISIL was using this artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil where U.S. personnel are located."
The decision to start the strikes was made by Army General Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command, under authorization granted him by the commander in chief, Kirby said in statement.
"As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL when they threaten our personnel and facilities," he said.
Obama, in a late night television address to the nation on Thursday, said he authorized two operations in Iraq -- "targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death."
Obama also made clear that he "will not allow the United States to drag into fighting another war in Iraq." "Even as we support Iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq," he said.
Amid concerns about the first U.S. airstrikes on Iraq since America withdraw all troops in 2011, Obama discussed the Iraq crisis with Jordanian King Abdullah II during a phone call Friday afternoon.
They exchanged opinions on the issue of the urgency of providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq, the risks to the region from the ISIL and other extremist groups, and the importance of supporting an inclusive Iraqi political process.
Also on Friday, U.S. Vice President Biden called Iraqi President Fuad Masum to discuss U.S. military operations in Iraq and the ongoing government formation process in Baghdad, the White House said.
Biden reiterated Obama's commitment to assist and protect innocent Iraqi civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar and bolster Iraq' s ability to take the fight to ISIL. He emphasized the importance of a forming a new government on the constitutional timeline, including a national program that can help consolidate national forces against ISIL.
Since the rising of the Iraq crisis, Obama and other U.S. senior officials insisted the air campaign would not amount to another full-scale U.S. military engagement in embattled Iraq, and ruled out putting U.S. boots on the ground, aside from a few hundred U.S. military advisors that the president sent in June.
Despite promises from Obama not to use U.S. combat troops, any type of U.S. involvement in Iraq, even if just from the air, is expected to elicit concern from critics who fret an air campaign could be the first action that will suck the U.S. into yet another major Middle East conflict.
Experts said the mayhem has put Obama in a sticky position. After more than a decade of wars in the Middle East, trillions of taxpayer dollars spent and the deaths of nearly 5,000 U.S. troops, war-weary Americans are wary of more involvement in the volatile region.
And some experts said that scenario is unlikely, at least during the current administration, as Obama is concerned about his legacy at this later stage of his presidency and wants to be known as the leader who ended the war in Iraq.
Air raids without a ground contingent would not be very effective, and would have to be accompanied by Iraqi forces ready to stand and fight, the experts said.
ARBIL, Iraq, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Displaced refugees in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan on Friday blamed the Sunni insurgents of the Islamic State (IS) for the loss of lives and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and welcomed the U.S. airstrikes against the positions of extremist militants.
"These strikes are too late, they should have launched them since the fall of Mosul on June 9," Sarkout Hama, a 34-year-old shop owner, told Xinhua in Arbil. Full story
PARIS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- France would support international action to combat Islamist insurgents in Iraq and protect civilians and minorities in the conflict-torn country where fresh fighting forced tens of thousands of people to displace, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.
"The international community cannot ignore the threat represented by the advance of this terrorist group for the local population, the stability not only of Iraq but of the whole region," Hollande stressed. Full story
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the humanitarian situation has further deteriorated in Iraq, as armed clashes continue to drive the displacement of civilians fleeing the violence, including in Erbil city in the north part of the Middle East country, a UN spokesman said here Friday.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is working with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to provide assistance there. Full story
