This Article is From Aug 09, 2014

US Warplanes Strike Militants in Iraq

US Warplanes Strike Militants in Iraq

In a handout photo, the aircraft carrier George H W Bush, which has been assigned to support a mission in Iraq, in the Arabian Gulf on August 7. (Spc. Joshua Card/US Navy via The New York Times)

Dohuk, Iraq: US warplanes struck Sunni militant positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon and Kurdish officials said. The action returned US forces to a direct combat role in a country it withdrew from in 2011.

Two F-18 fighters dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery target near Erbil, according to a statement by Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. Militants of the Islamic State were using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil, "near US personnel," Kirby said.

The strike followed President Barack Obama's announcement Thursday night that he had authorized limited airstrikes to protect US citizens in Erbil and Baghdad, and, if necessary, to break the siege of tens of thousands of refugees who are stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

"As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL when they threaten our personnel and facilities," Kirby said, referring to the Islamic State militants by an abbreviation of another translation of their Arabic name.

Kurdish officials said the US bombs struck Friday afternoon in and around Makhmour, a town near Erbil. They reported an airstrike in the same location Thursday, before the president's announcement; the Pentagon denied that US warplanes carried out that earlier attack.

Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, have been hard pressed in recent days by the militant fighters, who have seized several towns near Erbil from the Kurds and took the Mosul Dam, one of the most important installations in the country. The airstrike appeared intended to help stem the tide.

"The airstrikes are being led by the USA, and peshmerga are attacking with Katyusha," said Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for the Kurdish fighters, referring to a type of Russian-made tactical rocket.

Many members of religious minorities in northern Iraq, including Christians, have fled to Kurdish territory to escape the advancing militants, who have imposed harsh fundamentalist rule in areas they control. Others have been trapped and besieged by the militants, including tens of thousands of Yezidis, who follow an ancient faith linked to Zoroastrianism and are stranded in a mountainous area to the west. Delivering humanitarian aid to that group is one of the purposes of the US operations in Iraq, Obama said.

Britain, a close ally and coalition partner of the United States in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Friday that it would not take part in military action there now but would provide humanitarian aid and technical assistance.

"What we have decided today is to assist the United States in the humanitarian operations that started yesterday," the British defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said in London on Friday. "We are offering technical assistance in that,  in terms of refueling and surveillance. We are offering aid of our own, which we hope to drop over the next couple of days in support of the American relief effort, particularly to help the plight of those who are trapped on the mountain."

Turkey, a NATO ally that borders northern Iraq, said Thursday that it, too, would step up humanitarian aid to the region, news agencies reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration, citing "the hazardous situation created by armed conflict," instructed US air carriers on Thursday not to fly in Iraqi airspace until further notice. Turkish Airlines said it had suspended service to and from Erbil indefinitely.

The leader of the militant group sent a defiant message to the Americans in an audio statement posted on Twitter.

"I address this message to America, the holder of the Cross," wrote the leader, known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"Listen up, those who fight on your behalf will not give you any gains in Iraq and Syria. Soon enough, you will find yourself in a direct confrontation with the sons of Islam, who have prepared themselves well for the day we will fight you."

While Kurds welcomed Obama's announcement of US assistance, the reaction in Baghdad was mixed.

"Obama's speech did not delight Iraqis," said Hakim al-Zamili, a leader of a main Shiite bloc in Parliament, the Sadr faction, who were among the strongest opponents of US involvement in Iraq. "They are looking out for their own interests, not for ours."

"They should have provided Iraq with weapons," he added, possibly an allusion to the US suspension of deliveries of F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters to Iraq.

Another Shiite leader, Sami al-Askeri, who is close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Obama's call for airstrikes had come "too late."

"They should have made this decision when hundreds of Shiites and Sunnis were being killed every day," he said.

Askeri accused the Obama administration of being interested only in "protecting the Kurdish regional government and Christians, not the rest of Iraq."

"Iraqis must rely on themselves and their genuine friends like Iran and Russia, who have supported Iraq in its battle against ISIS," he said, using another abbreviated translation of the Islamic State.

Russia has sent Sukhoi helicopters to the Iraqi forces, and Iran has trained and financed militia forces and sent advisers.

The decision to announce US air operations Thursday appeared to reflect a view among Kurdish, Iraqi and US military leaders that a crippling attack by the militants was more imminent than was widely recognized. The militants' seizure of two towns within 20 miles of Erbil, which serves as the Kurdish capital, precipitated panic in the capital and the beginnings of an exodus of residents to Sulaimaniya, the largest city to the north.

Military leaders believed that if the city emptied, it would be much more vulnerable to an militant attack, officials said privately, asking not to be quoted because they did not want to shake morale.

The bombing appeared to bolster morale in Erbil on Friday, at least temporarily, according to people there. Fewer cars could be seen at the city gates attempting to leave, they said.

"The bombing changed the mood of the people," said a peshmerga officer.

(Omar Al-Jawoshy contributed reporting from Baghdad)

© 2014, The New York Times News Service
.