US jets strike IS armored vehicles in Iraq
US
jets and drones launched more air strikes in northern Iraq on Thursday
to destroy vehicles operated by extremist fighters from the so-called
Islamic State, the military said. The latest operations came after
President Barack Obama said the air campaign had achieved its initial
objectives but…
US jets strike IS armored vehicles in Iraq
8 hours ago
Iraqi
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position on the front line in Khazer,
west of Arbil, on August 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed)
The latest operations came after President Barack Obama said the air campaign had achieved its initial objectives but warned of more strikes to protect US personnel in the Kurdish city of Arbil.
US Central Command said drones and fighter jets took part in the latest strikes, the first at 1505 GMT to take out two armed trucks that had been firing on Kurdish forces.
The second strike took place just over 30 minutes later, targeting an MRAP -- a heavy armored truck of the type supplied by Washington to Iraqi forces and presumably captured by IS forces in recent months.
"All aircraft exited the strike area safely," Centcom said.
Since
July, Sunni jihadist fighters have seized a swathe of northern Iraq
including the city of Mosul, routing Shiite-led Iraqi forces and driving
out wave of refugees from the minority Christian and Yazidi
communities.
Now, the IS
advance threatens Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region
and host to a US consulate and other facilities. Obama, while ruling
out sending US combat troops, has vowed to protect it.
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