MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – The US Air Force has conducted the sixth airdrop of food and water for thousands of Yazidis, trapped by Islamic State insurgents atop a mountain in northern Iraq, according to US Department of State deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.
“Tonight US military conducted sixth airdrop of food and water for thousands of Iraqi citizens, threatened by ISIL [Islamic State] on Mt. Sinjar, Iraq,” Marie Harf said in a Twitter post.
According to Harf, the United States has brought nearly 100,000 meals and more than 27,000 gallons of fresh drinking water to displaced Yazidis since the start of US humanitarian deliveries.
The Pentagon said earlier it had sent 130 military advisers to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, in addition to the 250 who are already on the ground in northern Iraq.
Harf said on her Twitter page these were “temporary additional forces” comprised of Marines and special operations forces, who would not take part in military operations on Iraqi soil. This statement confirmed US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s pledge that these were not “combat boots for the ground kind of operation.”
Washington has been providing humanitarian aid to Yazidi Kurds, a religious minority in northern Iraq fleeing from Islamic State militants' onslaught. The US Air Force has also been bombing IS targets and helping to ship weapons to Iraqi Kurds battling the extremists.
