France backs air strike plan, UK agrees for food drop
President United States Barack Obama
Baghdad/Washington/ London/Paris: US jets struck jihadist positions in northern Iraq on Friday, a potential turning point in a two month crisis Washington said was threatening to result in genocide and to expose US assets.
President Barack Obama’s order for the first air strikes on Iraq since he put an end to US occupation in 2011 came after Islamic State militants made massive gains on the ground, seizing a dam and forcing an exodus of minorities.
Two US jets hit a mobile artillery piece, he said. A Kurdish official said the strikes targeted the towns of Gwer and Makhmur, southeast of the autonomous Kurdish region. The Federal Aviation Administration banned all US civilian flights over Iraq on Friday, just hours after air strikes ordered.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande pledged support to the US in its bid to end unrest in Iraq.The British air force agreed to drop food aid to Iraqi refugees fleeing extremists, the defence secretary said, although London has ruled out taking military action.
Meanwhile, the IS released a video on Friday in which they vowed to “raise their flag atop the White House”.“Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones. Send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah on the White House,” Abu Mosa, an IS spokesman said.
( Source : agencies )
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