Posted on 08/31/2014 12:41:01 AM PDT by GonzoII
(Reuters) - The United States carried out air strikes on Saturday against Islamic State fighters near the besieged Shi'ite town of Amerli in northern Iraq and airdropped humanitarian aid to civilians trapped there, the Pentagon said.
President Barack Obama authorized the new military action, broadening U.S. operations in Iraq amid an international outcry over the threat to Amerli's mostly ethnic Turkmen population.
U.S. aircraft delivered over a hundred bundles of emergency supplies and more aid was dropped from British, French and Australian planes, officials said, signaling headway in Obama’s efforts to draw allies into the fight against Islamic State.
Iraqi army and Kurdish forces closed in on Islamic State fighters on Saturday in a push to break the Sunni militants' siege of Amerli, which has been surrounded by the militants for more than two months.
Armed residents of Amerli have managed to fend off attacks by Islamic State fighters, who regard the town's majority Shi'ite Turkmen population as apostates. More than 15,000 people remain trapped inside.
"At the request of the government of Iraq, the United States military today airdropped humanitarian aid to the town of Amerli, home to thousands of Shia Turkmen who have been cut off from receiving food, water, and medical supplies for two months by ISIL,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said, using an alternative name for Islamic State.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Gotta love it!
we need robotic airborne troops ....
Iraqi Journalist Details Family Accounts of Iraq Rape, Killings
Raheem Salman (2006)
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/7/11/iraqi_journalist_details_family_accounts_of
Obama Offers Vision of World Without Nuclear Arms
Friday, 03 April 2009 11:14
By Caren Bohan and Matt Spetalnick
http://www.truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/83378-obama-offers-vision-of-world-without-nuclear-arms?Itemid=228article
Reminds of John Lennon's "Imagine",
New Leonard Cohen song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYXECtjOos&list=UUXWB-kykEYmLveG3Sw0LPOA&index=2
I saw some people starving
There was murder, there was rape
Their villages were burning
They were trying to escape
I couldn’t meet their glances
I was staring at my shoes
It was acid, it was tragic
It was almost like the blues
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.