US strikes Iraqi extremists as RAF aid arrives
THE US military accelerated its assault on Islamist militants in northern Iraq yesterday, announcing another round of airstrikes as the first humanitarian supplies from the Royal Air Force (RAF) arrived in the region.
The Department of Defense said that US fast jets and drones had destroyed armoured vehicles which were attacking civilians from the Yazidi minority group.
The Iraqi government has accused the Islamic State (IS, or Isis) of brutal atrocities against the Yazidi group and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq, including the country’s dwindling Christian population.
The UK Ministry of Defence also confirmed that the first RAF transport planes had arrived in northern Iraq, delivering clean water and other humanitarian aid to the Yazidi by air.
Masoud Barzani, President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, also made a request yesterday for arms from the international community to combat IS. The militants have taken hold of swathes of Syria and northern Iraq in recent months.
In an interview with the Atlantic magazine, former US secretary of state and likely Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made remarks perceived as critical of President Barack Obama. Referring to Obama’s reported foreign policy doctrine, “Don’t do stupid sh*t”, Clinton said the motto was “not an organising principle” which was needed by a “great nation”.