Iraqi refugees 'facing genocide' receive second US airdrop of aid

Operation to help 40,000 Yazidi Kurds surrounded by Islamists militants on Mount Sinjar follows air strikes on Isis positions 

theguardian.com, Martin Chulov in Irbil, Julian Borger and Dan Roberts in Washington, and agencies, Saturday 9 August 2014

Pallets of bottled water are loaded on board a C17 transport plane for an airdrop
to Iraqi refugees. Photograph: Sgt Vernon Young/US Air Force/EPA

The US has carried out a second airdrop of food and water to thousands of displaced Iraqis hiding in mountains amid the fear of genocide by Islamist militants, the Pentagon has said.

The operation to aid 40,000 civilians, Kurds mostly of the Yazidi faith, who are besieged on Mount Sinjar, on the western edge of Kurdistan's boundary with the rest of Iraq, came hours after the US launched fresh air strikes against fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), pulling the US back into Iraqi conflict for the first time since Barack Obama withdrew ground troops in 2011.

The chief spokesman for the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said early on Saturday that the air strikes had been followed up by further relief drops. Three planes delivered 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees, including more than 28,000 meals and more than 6,800 litres of water.

Yazidi children who fled the violence in Nineveh are taken to the relative
safety of Sulaimaniya province in Kurdistan. Photograph: Reuters

It has been reported that children among the stranded population, who face slaughter by the encircling jihadists, were beginning to die of thirst on the bare, parched mountainside. Isis has captured hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said the extremists' "campaign of terror against the innocent, including the Yazidi and Christian minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide. For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it."

The US is putting pressuring on Iraqi leaders to form a unity government capable of dealing with Isis, which has recently captured further territory in northern Iraq and is threatening the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

US warplanes bombed Isis fighters outside Irbil on Friday, launching a second and third round later in the day. The first strikes were limited to the frontlines around the city to relieve intense pressure on US-backed Kurdish fighters, but the White House signalled it could expand its military commitment. However, the Obama administration stressed that sending US combat troops back into the country was not an option.

The first 225kg laser-guided bombs were dropped in mid-afternoon by two fighter jets flying from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf. They targeted a howitzer that Isis fighters were using to shell Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga.

A second and third wave of bombing resumed in the evening, with attacks on Isis lines outside Irbil, the largest city in the autonomous Kurdistan region, with a population of 1.5 million inflated by thousands of Arab refugees from fighting elsewhere in Iraq. A drone hit an Isis mortar position near the city and a second pass by the drone killed suspected Isis militants when they "returned to the site moments later".

More than an hour later, four FA-18 Super Hornets hit an Isis convoy of seven vehicles parked near the city, as well as a mortar position. Two passes by the jets dropped eight laser-guided bombs.

Together, the three strikes suggested a campaign to protect Iraqi Kurdistan was beginning to take shape, marking the return of US aircraft to combat in Iraq.

An Associated Press correspondent at the scene reported six bombs being dropped at the frontline at Khazer, the site of a camp for displaced Iraqi Arabs just outside Irbil, abandoned in the face of the Isis offensive. Peshmerga fighters had been told to withdraw from their positions just before the sorties began, but even so, one of the bombs landed within 100 metres of their lines.

Britain said the air force would take part in the mission to drop food to stranded people. David Cameron said it was the world's duty to help religious minorities "in their hour of desperate need". The prime minister welcomed the US air strikes, but a Downing Street spokeswoman said Britain was "not planning a military intervention".

The White House stressed the limited aims of the operations, aware that one of Obama's proudest achievements in office has been the extrication of US troops from Iraq after eight years of war.

A spokesman said any additional support would be conditional on the formation of an "inclusive" government, a reflection of US discontent with the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who American and other western officials accuse of pursuing narrow sectarian goals in favour of his fellow Shias at the expense of the Sunni minority and national cohesion. One of the US arguments against using force on Isis earlier in the offensive was that it might relieve pressure on Maliki to open up his government or step down.

The White House said any additional support to a new government would not be prolonged and would not involve ground troops. The US vice-president, Joe Biden, had phoned Iraq's president, Fuad Masum, to discuss the strikes and press Baghdad to quickly form a new government. "The vice-president emphasised the threat Isis presented to all Iraqis and affirmed the US commitment to support Iraq and all of its citizens – from north to south – as they work to defend the country against this international threat," the White House said in a statement.

Friday's air strikes were framed as being a necessary step to protect a US joint operation centre in Irbil, used to coordinate defences with peshmerga fighters.

"The fact of the matter is we have people in Irbil and if Irbil is allowed to fall, they will be at risk," Ben Rhodes, the national security council spokesman, said.

Obama's orders gave his commanders discretion to use air power to protect US military advisers and diplomats in Irbil and Baghdad, and to break the siege of the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar. It was unclear how long the strikes around Irbil might last, or how America might extricate itself from an ever evolving and deepening conflict.

Isis has proved itself a formidable force, which has rapidly spread its control over a large swath of Syria and Iraq, capturing oilfields and one city after another. Fighters have declared themselves eager to take on US troops. They have seized control of a dam near Mosul which, if destroyed, could unleash a 20-metre wall of water on the valley, engulfing Iraq's second largest city.

The humanitarian airdrop operations were carried out by C17 transport planes flying from an unnamed US base in the region. The Yazidis remain encircled by Isis forces, who view their ancient faith as heretical and have executed dozens – possibly hundreds – of Yazidi men during their advance across the region.

Hundreds of Yazidi women are being held by Isis in schools in Mosul, Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's human rights ministry said. "We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them," Amin told AP. "We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it was caring for 4,000 Yazidi refugees who had managed to cross the border into Syria. It said the refugees, mostly women and children, were dehydrated, and had survived for up to six days by hiding in the mountains.

"Everything humanly possible must be done to prevent further tragedy from occurring on Mount Sinjar," said IRC's Iraq director, Suzanna Tkalec. "Whether coming overland or through airdrops, there needs to be a coordinated response to ensure aid reaches the 40,000 people stranded on the mountainside."

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