MARTHA’S VINEYARD, United States // US airstrikes have broken the siege of thousands of civilian refugees on a mountain in northern Iraq, Barack Obama said last night.
The US president said troops sent to assess the situation there would be withdrawn, but the airstrikes would continue against the Islamic State militants if they threatened US personnel and facilities in the region, including the Kurdish regional capital Erbil.
“The bottom line is, the situation on the mountain has greatly improved. We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar,” Mr Obama said, referring to the Islamic State by its former name.
A US military and civilian team of 16 spent Wednesday on Sinjar Mountain to assess conditions and see how many Iraqis needed to be moved out.
They reported that the number of trapped Iraqis was about 4,000 – far fewer than anticipated – and that US-supplied food and water had reached many of those in need in recent days.
“We helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it’s unlikely we’re going to need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain,” Mr Obama said.
He said the US would work with other governments to provide humanitarian relief “wherever we have capabilities” and can effectively reach those in need. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been driven from their homes since June as the militants seized swaths of territory in northern Iraq.
Mr Obama authorised the strikes last week as he warned that thousands of members of the Yazidi community risked “genocide” as they fled to the mountain.
The US will still carry out airstrikes and increase military assistance to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State, he said.
“We will continue airstrikes to protect our people and facilities in Iraq,” said Mr Obama. Risk to the US consulate in Erbil was one of his reasons for military intervention.
Mr Obama said there was still a threat to Iraqis, including Christians and Muslims, from the Islamic State, which has vowed to kill anyone who does not share its hardline Sunni beliefs.
Meanwhile, the governor of the western Anbar province said he has secured a promise of US support in a battle against the Islamic State, reviving an alliance that helped to thwart an earlier Sunni militant threat, from Al Qaeda.
Ahmed Al Dulaimi said his request, made in meetings with US diplomats and a senior military officer, included air support against the militants who have a tight grip on large parts of his desert province.
Mr Al Dulaimi said the Americans had promised to help.
“Our first goal is the air support. Their technology capability will offer a lot of intelligence information and monitoring of the desert and many things which we are in need of,” he said.
“No date was decided but it will be very soon and there will be a presence for the Americans in the western area.”
The was no immediate comment from US officials.
* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters
