It said the air strikes included a drone strike on a
mortar position and a strike by fighter jets on an
Islamic State convoy near Arbil .
Today is the first day US warplanes have bombed
Islamist fighters marching on Iraq's Kurdish capital
after President Barack Obama said Washington must
act to prevent " genocide" .
Islamic State fighters have advanced to within a half
hour' s drive of Arbil, capital of Iraq' s Kurdish region
and a hub for US oil companies.
They have also seized control of Iraq' s biggest dam,
which could allow them to flood cities and cut off vital
water and electricity supplies.
A Pentagon spokesman said two F /A -18 aircraft from
an aircraft carrier in the Gulf earlier dropped laser -
guided 500 -pound bombs on a mobile artillery piece
used by the fighters to shell Kurdish forces defending
Arbil.
Mr Obama this week authorised the first US air strikes
on Iraq since he pulled all troops out in 2011 .
He argued action was needed to halt the Islamist
advance, protect Americans and safeguard hundreds of
thousands of Christians and members of other
religious minorities who have fled for their lives .
The US also dropped relief supplies to members of the
ancient Yazidi sect, tens of thousands of whom are
massed on a desert mountaintop seeking shelter from
fighters who had ordered them to convert or die .
" Earlier this week , one Iraqi in the area cried to the
world , 'There is no one coming to help' ," said Mr
Obama said last night. "Well, today America is coming
to help ."
" We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a
potential act of genocide ," he said.
Today, the White House said the strikes would last as
long as the security situation required.
The Islamic State was defiant . A fighter told Reuters by
telephone that the US air strikes would have " no impact
on us".
" The planes attack positions they think are strategic,
but this is not how we operate. We are trained for
guerrilla street war, " he said.
" God is with us and our promise is heaven. When we
are promised heaven , do you think death will stop
us?"
The advance of the Sunni militants has sounded alarm
across the Middle East and threatens to unravel Iraq, a
country divided between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds .
The US air strikes prompted renewed calls on jihadi
online forums for attacks on the United States and oil
interests in the Gulf.
Politicians in Baghdad have been paralysed by
infighting while the state falls apart .
The top Shia cleric there has now all but demanded
that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al - Maliki quit , a bold
intervention that could bring the veteran ruler down .
Sunni fighters from the Islamic State, an al -Qaeda
offshoot rejected as too extreme by Osama bin Laden's
successors , have swept through northern Iraq since
June .
Their advance has dramatically accelerated in the past
week .
Attention has focused on the plight of Yazidis ,
Christians and other minority groups in northern Iraq,
which has been one of the most diverse parts of the
Middle East for centuries.
" The stakes for Iraq's future can also not be clearer,"
US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
The Islamic State 's "campaign of terror against the
innocent, including the Christian minority, and its
grotesque targeted acts of violence show all the
warning signs of genocide" .
The US Defense Department said planes dropped 72
bundles of supplies, including 8 ,000 ready- to-eat
meals and thousands of gallons of drinking water , for
threatened civilians near Sinjar, home of the Yazidis ,
ethnic Kurds who practice an ancient faith related to
Zoroastrianism .
The Islamic State considers them to be "devil
worshippers" .
After fighters ordered them to leave , convert or die,
most fled their towns and villages to camp out on
Sinjar mountain , an arid peak where they believe Noah
settled after the biblical flood .


http://m.rte.ie/news/touch//2014/0808/635834-president-obama-authorises-air-strikes-in-iraq/

war violence everywhere may God save the world

the united states are trying to salvage an almost hopeless situation. the situation Iraq finds itself today is almost an offshoot of the invasion by the western power. the Islamic state (I.S) is sweeping through some parts Of the country and putting the lives of thousands of minority Christians, Kurds e.t.c in jeopardy. their message is convert or die. to prevent "genocide " the US had to attack the position of the I.S to halt them advancing on the position of the hapless Kurds who seems unlikely to match the superior firepower of the rebels.

Obama need too turn on more heat on they azz!!!!!!

Garvey1: Obama need too turn on more heat on they azz!!!!!!

true.. more strikes are needed.