Obama authorizes airstrikes in Iraq

The United States intervened militarily in Iraq early this morning for the first time since Islamist militants seized control of nearly half the country, dropping humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of people who fled their homes when the Islamic State captured the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq.

In a nationally televised address, President Barack Obama said he had also authorized targeted airstrikes “to protect American personnel,” citing an Islamic State advance on the city of Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. But Obama indicated that such strikes had not yet been made and stressed that he did not intend a massive military campaign.

At the request of the Iraqi government, Obama said, he acted also to help save Iraqi citizens, many of them religious minorities, who are trapped on a mountaintop in northern Iraq.

Read more