US back in Iraq again, bombs ISIS to 'prevent genocide'

 

Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington

But No Boots On Ground, Says Obama

US warplanes bombed Islamist fighters marching on Iraq’s Kurdish capital in the north on Friday after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent “genocide”.

Militants of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS, Islamist State of Iraq and Syria), who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, have advanced to within a half hour’s drive of Irbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region and a hub for US oil companies.

US airlines and other commercial carriers have been barred from flying over Iraq except in emergencies.

A Pentagon spokesman said two FA-18 fighter jets from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf dropped bombs on a mobile artillery piece used by the fighters to shell Kurdish forces defending Irbil.

Obama on Thursday authorized airstrikes against the Sunni extremists even as he pledged not to return US ground troops to the region.

Ahead of the strike, US aircraft dropped food and water to Yazidi minorities trapped on Mount Sinjar, driven out by the ISIS and facing annihilation. The actions constituted the deepest US engagement in Iraq since its troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.

Obama, who campaigned on a platform of extricating US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, suggested his hand was forced by the barbaric militants advancing on Irbil. “People are starving.

Children are dying of thirst.

Meanwhile, ISIS forces below have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yazidi people,” he explained to Americans in a late-night address from the White House, saying when the US has the capabilities to help avert a massacre, it is the American thing to take action.

US airlines and other commercial carriers have been barred from flying over Iraq except in emergencies.The US President, who campaigned on a platform of extricating US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, suggested his hand was forced by barbaric militants of the ISIS advancing on Irbil, a nerve centre of US operations in Iraq.

“People are starving. And children are dying of thirst.
Meanwhile, ISIS forces below have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yazidi people,“ Obama explained in a late-night address from the White House, saying when the US has the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, it is the American thing to take action.

“That's a hallmark of US leadership. That's who we are,“ the president told a nation that is largely sceptical of getting entangled in foreign crises again after two wars that have cost over a trillion dollars and thousands of casualties. US officials said Pentagon has been authorized to launch airstrikes against ISIS extremists if the military determines that Iraqi troops and Kurdish forces are unable to break the mountain siege and there is imminent danger of massacre of the trapped people.

Danger to nearly 1000 US personnel in Baghdad and Irbil, both under threat from rampaging ISIS forces, will also precipitate air strikes.

Obama's turnaround, which came after weeks of resisting military action, followed continuing ISIS advances in Iraq that a token infusion of about 700 US military personnel failed to stem.