The Moment Obama Began Bombing Iraq: First Picture Emerges of US Air Strike on ISIS artillery
-as President Carries out His Threat to use Force to Save Thousands of Non-Muslims Trapped by Fanatics
- GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:
- This Report contains Images of Death that Some Readers May Find Disturbing
- Two F/A18 fighters dispatched to unleash 500lb laser-guided bombs on Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil
- It is America's first military offensive in Iraq since it pulled out of the country in 2011 after eight years at war
- Comes after Obama vowed to 'help' Iraqi forces with airstrikes to prevent 'a potential act of genocide'
- Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities have been driven from their homes as ISIS jihadists storm towns
- Some 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children - fled to hills after ISIS took Sinjar, the Yazidis' heartland in Iraq
- ISIS calls Yazidis devil worshippers because of their beliefs that predate Islam, Christianity and Judaism
- Obama said U.S. warplanes had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to Yazidis holed up in Sinjar hills
- David Cameron welcomes airstrikes to help Iraqis 'in their hour of desperate need' but rules out British military action
- Foreign Office urges British nationals to stay away from Kurdistan as America pounded Islamic State positions
- FAA prohibits U.S. airlines and other commercial carriers from flying over Iraq as spectre of more airstrikes looms
America waded into the unfolding crisis in Iraq today as it dispatched two warplanes to bombard an ISIS artillery battery in a bid to halt the extremist horde that is sweeping the country and save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.
The F/A-18C Hornets took off from the USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf this morning before unleashing 500lb laser-guided bombs on a unit of Islamic State fighters marching on Kurdish capital Erbil, where U.S. troops are stationed as well as the American consulate.
In an unusual move, news of America's first military offensive in Iraq since it pulled out of the country in 2011 after eight years at war was announced by Rear Admiral John Kirby through his Twitter account.
'US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery. Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending Erbil, near US personnel,' he tweeted.
Gone in a cloud of smoke: A dust cloud rises where the first US bomb struck ISIS artillery being towed by a truck outside Irbil
The airstrike marked the first time US forces have taken direct action against ISIS since it began taking control of huge swathes of the Middle East
It begins: One of the two F/A-18C Hornet fighter jets that bombed the ISIS artillery position prepares
for takeoff from the USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf before the dawn mission this morning
The assault follows Barack Obama's dramatic call to arms last night in which he authorised airstrikes to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by Islamic State jihadists, declaring: 'America is coming to help.'
And as the crisis in Iraq entered a new phase of international involvement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned the U.S. has enough intelligence to clearly single out and hit Islamic militants if they threaten U.S. interests or the thousands of refugees who fled to a mountaintop.
Asked if the Islamic State group could successfully hide among civilians to evade strikes, Hagel said: 'It's pretty clear who they are, and they would be pretty identifiable where our airstrikes could be effective.'
It is understood that ISIS was using stolen artillery, abandoned by retreating Iraqi soldiers, to shell Kurdish forces defending the regional capital of Kurdistan.
Peshmerga Kurdistan forces are now waiting for more strikes by the US fighter jets before launching a full-scale counter attack against the ISIS assault.
The chaos engulfing Iraq has escalated rapidly in the past 24 hours, with a re-energised Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant storming towns in the north, executing villagers and chasing thousands from their homes into the mountains.
'We're coming to help': President Obama meets with the National Security Council yesterday in the Situation Room of the White House, hours before his addressto the nation in which he vowed to help the thousands of Iraqi civilians being driven from their homes and slaughtered by the Islamic State extremists running rampant through the country.
That help came in the form of targeted airstrikes on key ISIS positions today:
Ready for action: And as soon as the first two jets returned from their successful bombing run on ISIS fighters marching
on Erbil this morning, the flight deck of the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier came alive as more warplanes readied for action
Already dozens of Yazidis - who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshippers because of their ancient beliefs which predate both Christianity and Islam - have been murdered since the extremist fighters overran the town of Sinjar yesterday.
Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren mountain range to the north of their hometown as their hunters close in.
But there they face an impossible dilemma - try to make it to the Turkish border and risk being captured and killed by insurgents, or remain on Mount Sinjar without food or water in the searing heat in the hope that aid will somehow get through.
Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C.
Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the limp bodies of dozens of young children either too exhausted to continue or killed by ISIS militants, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidi men.
The dead men's wives were reportedly kept as trophies to be gifted to unmarried jihadist fighters.
Last night, in a televised late-night statement from the White House, Mr Obama said American warplanes had already carried out airdrops of food and water to the Iraqi Yazidis hiding in the mountains.