Obama warns of long campaign against Islamist militants in Iraq

Just days after the US military carried out airstrikes on Islamist militants belonging to an extremist group against Kurdish forces, the US has warned that there is no quick fix to the crisis in Iraq, reports said.

US President Barack Obama has committed the US to long-term involvement in Iraq, warning that the crisis in the north would not be solved quickly.

"I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks. This is going to take some time," Obama said.

The US president also said that rebuilding the Iraqi army, fostering trust among Sunnis and negating the threat from jihadists would be a long-term project.

US aircraft have targeted armoured vehicles and militant positions in a second day of strikes against Islamic State forces. The US military said the latest air drop involved planes from multiple air bases and included one C-17 and two C-130 cargo planes supported by fighter planes.

On Friday, a mix of US fighters and drones attacked and destroyed armoured personnel carriers after Yazidi civilians near Sinjar came under attack from the vehicles, US central command said.

US forces "successfully [conducted] four air strikes to defend Yazidi civilians being indiscriminately attacked" near Sinjar, said a statement from the US Central Command (Centcom), which covers the Middle East.

In the first strike "a mix of US fighters and remotely piloted aircraft struck one of two Isil armoured personnel carriers firing on Yazidi civilians near Sinjar", the statement said. Two more armoured personnel carriers and an armed truck were also hit, while a fourth strike struck another armoured personnel carrier, also in the Sinjar area.

Meanwhile, a US aircraft has also delivered 72 bundles of supplies, including more than 3,800 gallons of water and more than 16,000 packaged meals.

After taking in up to 1.2 million refugees since mid-June, the Kurds of northern Iraq are urging Obama not to let up in air strikes against Isis, which on Friday was only 50km from Irbil and advancing east towards the Kurdish capital. At least four US air strikes appear to have slowed the momentum of the jihadists, Kurdish peshmerga forces said on Saturday.