The United States dropped laser-guided bombs on ISIS artillery in Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon said — the beginning of airstrikes threatened a day earlier by President Barack Obama.
The bombs, 500 pounds
each, were dropped by two Navy F-18 fighter jets near Erbil, the
strategically important city that serves as the Kurdish capital, and
where the United States has a consulate. ISIS was using the artillery to
shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil, the Pentagon said.
The strikes marked a return to U.S. military engagement in Iraq, three years after Obama removed U.S. forces.
Obama, in a speech
Thursday night from the White House, said that he was authorizing
airstrikes to protect American interests in Iraq and drops of food and
water for tens of thousands of refugees trapped by ISIS on a mountain in
Iraq.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, a
Pentagon spokesman, said Friday: “As the president made clear, the
United States military will continue to take direct action against ISIL
when they threaten our personnel and facilities.” ISIS and ISIL are
acronyms to describe the same Islamic militant group.
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