Washington, August 9 (RIA Novosti) – The United States conducted two additional airstrikes on extremists in Iraq, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
“The U.S. military continued to attack ISIL targets near Erbil today conducting two additional air strikes to help defend the city where U.S. personnel are assisting the Government of Iraq,” Kirby said Friday.
According to Pentagon press secretary, remotely piloted aircraft struck a terrorist mortar position.
“When ISIL fighters returned to the site moments later, the terrorists were attacked again and successfully eliminated,” he added.
Kirby also noted that four F/A-18 aircraft struck a convoy of seven vehicles and a mortar position of Islamic State militants near the city of Erbil.
“On both runs, each aircraft dropped one laser guided bomb making a total of eight bombs dropped on target neutralizing the mortar and convoy,” he elaborated.
Earlier on Friday, Pentagon said that US combat aircraft conducted an airstrike on positions of Islamic State (IS) militants fighting in Iraq against Kurdish forces defending the city of Erbil.
The United States also airdropped humanitarian aid to Yazidi Kurds, an ethnic and religious minority in Kurdistan.
US President Barack Obama gave the green light to US airstrikes on IS targets late on Thursday, saying that the offensive would seek to lift the IS siege of Erbil to prevent the "genocide" of the Yazidi population.
The Islamic State is a Sunni group that has been fighting in Syria and launched an offensive in Iraq in June. The group has taken over large parts of the country, with the goal of seizing Baghdad. Also in June, the group announced the establishment of a caliphate on the Iraq-Syria border.
Iraqi Kurds have already re-established military cooperation with Baghdad in an effort to drive the IS fighters back. Like Moscow, the United Nations Security Council has called on all Iraqi communities to unite and respond to the threat to Iraq’s future.
