US jets target Islamic State targets in Iraq

The US military has attacked Islamic State positions in the besieged Iraqi town of Amerli and near Iraq’s largest dam in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

In the previous weeks, the US forces in northern Iraq have conducted airstrikes in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the ground, fighting against the Islamic State, which controls large areas in Syria and Iraq. 

Commenting on the airstrikes on Amerli, John Kirby, the US department of defence spokesman, said on Sunday that President Barack Obama authorised the “limited” military operation to prevent an Islamic State attack on the town and to enable an aid drop to those in the town.

In Amerli, thousands of Shia Turkmen have been cut off from food and water for nearly two months besieged by Islamic State fighters. Residents, who are in danger because of their faith and their resistance to the armed group, have vowed to kill themselves rather than risk capture by the group.

Kirby said the aid came at the request of the Iraqi government and that the US military conducted the raids to support the aid delivery, the AP news agency reported.

He added that aircraft from Australia, France and the UK had joined the US in the aid drop.

The strikes come as Iraq launched a major operation to liberate the besieged town, with support from armed Shia Muslims. The AFP news agency reported that Kurdish peshmerga were also involved in the operation.

Regarding the airstrikes near Mosul dam, the US deaprtment of defence said that the US warplanes and armed drones destroyed an Islamic State armed vehicle, a fighting position and weapons, and damaged a building near the dam.

The Islamic State group, an al-Qaeda off-shoot formerly known as ISIL, overran most of Sunni Arab areas of Iraq after seizing the northern city of Mosul on June 10, and have proclaimed a caliphate straddling the border with Syria, where they also control vast swaths of territory.

Backed by US air power, Kurdish forces recaptured the strategic dam nearly two weeks ago.

The Turkmen, ethnically Turkish, are Iraq’s third largest ethnic group after Arabs and Kurds.