The US on Saturday launched a new airdrop to aid thousands of members of an Iraqi minority group who fled from Islamic extremists, as Iraq’s Foreign Minister said US airstrikes have helped Kurdish forces counter the militants’ advance.
An American military team is currently in the Kurdish regional capital Irbil, working to ensure tactical coordination with Kurdish peshmerga forces, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a press conference late Saturday. “Air strikes are intended to degrade the terrorists’ capabilities and achieve strategic gains and have been very effective,” Zebari, a Kurd, said. The airstrikes marked the first time US forces have directly targeted the Islamic State group and the first tentative military engagement in Iraq since U.S. Troops withdrew at the end of 2011.
Many of America’s allies backed the US intervention, pledging urgent steps to assist the legions of refugees. Those in jeopardy included thousands of members of the Yazidi minority whose plight, trapped on a mountaintop by the militants, prompted the US to airdrop dozens of crates of food and water.