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For some background, scroll down to the end
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Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby on Airstrikes in Iraq
At approximately 6:45 a.m. EDT, the U.S. military conducted a targeted airstrike against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists.
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Two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil. ISIL was using this artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil where U.S. personnel are located.
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The decision to strike was made by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief.
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As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL when they threaten our personnel and facilities.
Update:
CNN has just reported that the U.S. has conducted air strikes against ISIL artillery near Irbil using two F-18s off the aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush.
Stay tuned
Added:
From a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby: “ISIL was using this artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil where U.S. personnel are located. The decision to strike was made by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the Commander in Chief. As the President made clear, The United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL when they threaten our personnel and facilities.”
Original Post:
In the face of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) genocidal actions in northern Iraq, the President last night authorized two operations in that troubled region of 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.”
As part of the first authorization, the president ordered U.S. combat aircraft to be ready to launch airstrikes to protect Americans in Erbil, Iraq, and to lift the siege of the Yezidis.
In support of the second objective, “the first missions – a C-17 Globemaster III and two C-130 Hercules airlifters escorted by F-18 Super Hornets –already have delivered supplies to the beleaguered Yezidis, a religious minority that ISIL has vowed to eliminate,” according to the Department of Defense (DoD)
The New York Times reports, “The planes were over the drop zone for about 15 minutes, and flew at a relatively low altitude. They flew over the Mount Sinjar area for less than 15 minutes, Pentagon officials said, and dropped a total of 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 meals ready to eat. Mr. Obama, officials said, delayed announcing the steps he intended to take in Iraq until the planes had safely cleared the area.”
Obama authorized two operations in Iraq. The first is targeted airstrikes to defend Americans. The most immediate threat now is in Irbil, where the United States maintains a consulate. ISIL has launched a broad attack that has threatened the city. The airstrikes are not limited to Irbil.
Senior officials speaking on background after the president’s address said ISIL is a competent force that poses real danger to religious minorities in Iraq.
“We intend to stay vigilant and take action if these terrorist forces threaten our personnel or facilities anywhere in Iraq, including our consulate in Irbil and our embassy in Baghdad,” the president said.
“We’re also providing urgent assistance to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces so they can more effectively wage the fight against ISIL.”
Manned and unmanned U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft are over Irbil now, senior administration officials said.
The second operation is to help save Iraqi civilians stranded on the mountain. “In recent days, the Yezidi women, men, and children from the area of Sinjar have fled for their lives, and thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, are now hiding high up on the mountain with little but the clothes on their backs,” Obama said. “They are without food, they are without water. People are starving, and children are dying of thirst.”
August daytime temperatures in Iraq soar well into the 100s. The aircraft dropped enough water and food for 8,000 people, White House officials said. Obama also authorized targeted airstrikes to help Iraqi forces to break the siege of Mount Sinjar and protect the civilians trapped there.
This does not mean American troops will be deploying in large numbers to Iraq, he emphasized.
“As commander in chief, 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 fight to these terrorists, American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq, because there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq,” the president said. “The only lasting solution is reconciliation among Iraqi communities and stronger Iraqi security forces.”
The several hundred American advisors the president ordered to Iraq will continue to assess what more can be done to help train, advise and support Iraqi forces, Obama said.
The president thanked American combat crews who are risking their lives over Iraq “for protecting our fellow Americans and saving the lives of so many men, women and children that they will never meet.”
“They represent American leadership at its best,” he added.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel commended the U.S. Central Command service members involved in today’s humanitarian assistance mission in northern Iraq, providing food and water for thousands of Iraqi civilians whose lives have been threatened by armed groups associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
“The U.S. military will also remain ready to conduct targeted airstrikes, if necessary, to help forces in Iraq fighting to break the siege of Mount Sinjar and protect Iraqi civilians trapped there,” Hagel said. The military also is prepared to conduct airstrikes to protect American personnel against ISIL terrorist convoys should they approach the city of Irbil, he added.
Finally, the White House says that Vice President Joe Biden called Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani to discuss the security situation in northern Iraq and the threat ISIL poses to innocent civilians, and also to offer his condolences for Kurdish losses suffered during ISIL’s advance.
“President Barzani updated the vice president on the conditions facing Yezidi refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar and the disposition of Kurdish forces protecting Erbil,” the statement said. “Vice President Biden relayed President Obama’s offer of humanitarian assistance for the Yezidis and reaffirmed his commitment to take whatever actions necessary to protect Americans in Erbil, including targeted airstrikes.”
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Some background:
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2014 – The Islamic State of Syria and the Levant is a regional threat with aspirations to become a worldwide terrorist organization, senior administration officials speaking with reporters on background said last night.
And ISIL a determined and very capable foe, they added.
In June, ISIL crossed the border from Syria into Iraq and took Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city. President Barack Obama said at the time that the United States would establish a joint operation center in Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region, and in Baghdad. The United States surged both manned and unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
The president also sent military assessment teams to examine the situation and assess the capabilities of both the Iraqi security forces and ISIL.
On Aug. 2, ISIL launched a multipronged attack across hundreds of kilometers in northern Iraq. “It was swift; it was effective,” one official said. “They … acted with tremendous military proficiency.”
U.S. officials coordinated through the joint operation centers with Kurdish Peshmerga commanders and with the Iraqi air force and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. This developed into “a fairly historic level of cooperation” between the Iraqi air force and the Peshmerga, the official said, as Iraqi aircraft supported Peshmerga ground units with tactical airstrikes.
ISIL responded rapidly. “Given the rapidness in which it is able to maneuver, given its ability to direct indirect fire attacks followed by direct assaults with heavy weapons, it is a militarily proficient organization,” the official said. “We are seeing that increasingly … in Syria and also increasingly in Iraq. And it requires a level of sophistication in terms of a military response.”
Last night, ISIL launched another series of attacks, endangering the approaches to Irbil. This threat prompted the president’s decision to authorize U.S. airstrikes, the official said.
Another part of the equation is the danger to the Yezidi people trapped on the slopes of Mount Sinjar. “The Yezidi population has been targeted by ISIL,” the official said.
ISIL has targeted the Yezidi since the days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — the al-Qaida in Iraq leader who was killed in 2006. ISIL is an outgrowth of that terror group. “It is their mission to ethnically cleanse areas of anyone that it disagrees with, and that could mean Christians, it could mean Yezidis, or anyone else,” the official said.
The brutal terror group also is targeting Sunni Muslims who disagree with its philosophy — essentially the majority of the population, the official said.
ISIL drove thousands of people from their homes, and the rugged mountain is their only refuge. The Iraqi air force did launch some airdrops to provide some relief, but they were not enough. Yesterday, a U.S. Air Force C-17 and two Air Force C-130s — escorted by two F-18 Super Hornets — dropped enough food and water for 8,000 people.
Lead photo of C-130 performing an air drop: DoD files.
