MOSCOW, August 12 (RIA Novosti) – The US Air Force has conducted a fifth airdrop of food and water for Kurdish refugees, who have been stranded atop Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq after fleeing Islamic State militants.
The airdrop was conducted from several air bases in the US Central Command area of responsibility. It included one C-17 and three C-130 cargo planes that dropped a total of 76 bundles of supplies, the US Air Force said in a statement.
It also said that the C-17 cargo aircraft dropped 40 containers with 14,000 liters of freshwater, while the C-130’s delivered 36 containers totaling 11,08 meals and additional 5,000 liters of water.
To date, a total of 85,000 meals and 75,700 liters of water have been dropped to the displaced Yazidi Kurds, one of the minority groups in Iraq repressed by insurgents from the Sunni Islamic State group.
The United States said late on Monday it continued to deliver humanitarian aid to Yazidi men, women and children who are said to be without food or water. According to the White House, some “have begun to escape their perch on that mountain.”
The United States has launched airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL. The Sunni Muslim insurgency controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and recent attacks on Kurdish-run northern Iraq have forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee their homes.
