President Obama authorized Thursday night airstrikes against Islamic terrorists sweeping Iraq to protect U.S. personnel and stop a 'potential act of genocide' against innocent civilians.
President Obama authorized Thursday night airstrikes against Islamic terrorists sweeping Iraq to protect U.S. personnel and stop a “potential act of genocide” against innocent civilians.
In a White House address to the nation, Obama said he gave permission for “targeted airstrikes” to break the siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters in northern Iraq.
“We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide,” Obama said.
The U.S. military launched a relief mission Thursday to help thousands of Iraqi minorities who fled into the mountains to escape bloodthirsty jihadists.
In recent days, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been forced to flee their homes in the northern Iraq area of Sinjar. The displaced Iraqis have taken refuge atop nearby Mount
Sinjar, where they have been dying of thirst and starvation.
Most of the civilians are Yazidis, a small and ancient religious sect that ISIS have vowed to exterminate in their quest to make Iraq an Islamic state.
Obama said the US has already began air dropping food and water on Mount Sinjar at the request of the Iraqi government.
“They are without food, they are without water. People are staving and children are dying of thrist,” Obama said. “Meanwhile, ISIS forces below have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yazidis people, which would constitute genocide.
“So these innocent families are faced with the horrible choice: descend the mountain and be slaughtered or stay and slowly die of thirst and hunger.”
Obama said the US has already began air dropping food and water on Mount Sinjar at the request of the Iraqi government.
“When we face a situation like we do on that mountain with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale ... I believe the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye,” Obama said.
As many as 50,000 Iraqi minorities - Christians and Yazidis — abandoned their homes over the weekend after fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria seized their towns and gave them a stark choice - convert, or be executed.
He said the US military would conduct airstrikes to help forces in Iraq as they fight to break the siege of Mount Sinjar.
But the President insisted the action will not lead to American combat troops returning to Iraq.
Obama stressed that any military response would be limited and not involve deploying combat troops on the ground.
“Earlier this week, one Iraqi cried to the world, ‘There is no one coming to help.’ Well, today America is coming to help,” Obama said.
The President said he was also concerned about protecting personnel at the US consulate in Erbil, a major city in northern Iraq that ISIS forces were poised to overrun.
He said he’s also authorized airstrikes to stop ISIS’s advance on Erbil.
“We intend to stay vigilant and take action if these terrorist forces threaten our personnel or facilities anywhere in Iraq, including our consulate in Erbil and our embassy in Baghdad,” the President said.
After nearly a week of fighting, the ISIS marauders captured Iraq's largest dam on Thursday, taking control of water and power supplied to millions of people.
The fall of the Mosul dam gave the radical group control over precious resources — and the power to cause almost incomprehensible death and devastation.
If the dam is destroyed or simply fails, it would unleash a 65-foot wave of water, with catastrophic consequences.
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