WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday night authorized the use of airstrikes to prevent a “potential act of genocide” in the northern mountains of Iraq, after thousands of ethnic minorities became trapped there while fleeing the brutal military rampage of Islamic militants.
The president said the US military was prepared to carry out targeted airstrikes against Islamic State militants near the city of Irbil, where 40,000 Yazidis, fearing execution, holed up in makeshift mountain camps.
“Today, America is coming to help,” Obama said in a brief statement at the White House. “When we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I think the United States cannot turn a blind eye.”
Obama emphasized the plight of the Yazidi people while offering humanitarian aid. But he said the United States would not send ground troops into the country.
“I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,” he said.
Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the president’s decision, and said the Islamist group’s “grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide.”
US military aircraft had already successfully airdropped humanitarian supplies into the area after attempts by the Iraqi military failed.
The strikes could aid in getting supplies through, and could counter dramatic military advances by the radicals from the organization that calls itself the Islamic State.
As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq … When the lives of American citizens are at risk, we will take action.
- President Barack Obama
Religious and ethnic minorities, including the ancient Yazidi people, were barely hanging on in buildings and encampments in the mountains around Sinjar, west of the northern city of Mosul — entirely cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State.
The men, women and children fled their homes under threat of annihilation if they didn’t convert to radical Islam, and were penned in by a ferocious military offensive that escalated this summer.
The extremists also seized Iraq’s largest dam, gaining control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
“The situation is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest warned. “Tens of thousands have been displaced.”
The Yazidis belong to an ancient, monotheistic religion that has influences from Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam and other faiths.
Islamic State militants, who are trying to establish an Islamic caliphate throughout the region, consider the Yazidis devil worshippers and infidels.