U.S. fighter jets, drones strike Islamic militants in northern Iraq

The U.S. military ramped up its campaign against Islamic militants in northern Iraq Friday, with fighter jets and drones conducting airstrikes outside the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil, officials said.

The Pentagon said the strikes "successfully eliminated" militant targets and destroyed artillery being used by the Islamic State extremist group to shell Kurdish forces.

The first strikes took place at dawn, Washington time, with two combat jets flying from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf. The aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a "mobile artillery piece" near Irbil, said Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.

Islamic State fighters were "using this artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Irbil where U.S. personnel are located," he said in a statement. "As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against . . . when they threaten our personnel and facilities."

Hours later, a Predator drone armed with Hellfire missiles struck an Islamic State mortar position. When "fighters returned to the site moments later, the terrorists were attacked again and successfully eliminated," Kirby said.

That strike was followed by additional bombing against an Islamic State convoy of seven vehicles and a mortar position near Irbil. The Pentagon said four aircraft executed two passes over the convoy, dropping a total of eight laser-guided bombs.

American planes conducted a second airdrop of food and water early today for those trapped in the Sinjar mountains, said Pentagon chief spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby.

Escorted by two Navy fighter jets, three planes dropped 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees, including more than 28,000 meals and more than 1,500 gallons of water, said Kirby, who spoke from New Delhi during a trip with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

President Obama authorized the strikes following the launch of a powerful Islamic State offensive in northern Iraq. He also sent U.S. military aircraft to drop food and water to besieged Iraqi civilians in the region.

The first U.S. airstrikes hit Islamic State positions in Makhmour, about 35 miles southwest of Irbil, said Mahmood Haji, an official at the Kurdish Interior Ministry. A second set of strikes took place near the Khazer checkpoint outside Irbil, Haji said.

A day earlier, refugees had been evacuated from a camp in the area largely filled with families who had fled Mosul as Islamic State militants advanced.

"This is a victory for all the Iraqi people, for the peshmerga, and for America," Haji said. "We need these airstrikes to destroy their bases and vehicles so the peshmerga can move forward." The peshmerga is the Kurdish security force.

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, frequent critics of Obama's approach in Iraq, said in a joint statement that Obama's actions are "far from sufficient." They urged the United States to strike at the Islamic State by air and provide more military aid to Kurdish forces, the Iraqi government and rebels in Syria, where the radicals also control territory.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said he supports the U.S. airstrikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq.

"The airstrikes are essential," said King, a member of the House Homeland Security and Intelligence committees.

But King faulted Obama for signaling his military strategy to the enemy, and conditioning greater U.S. military involvement to stop the Islamic State on the creation by Iraq's political factions of a unity government.

"He continues to talk about not dragging it into a war, no boots on the ground," King said. "To me, you should not talk about what you are or are not going to do."

I restored the following graf for the paper because we have room./tsThe Islamic State group represents a direct national security threat to the United States, and the president should focus on stopping that threat, King said. "They've made it clear they want to attack U.S. interests."He said: "I'm talking about strictly from an American perspective. It's absolutely essential to stop ISIS," which he called "more lethal than al Qaida" with more military skills, trained fighters and money - "well over a billion dollars."

To stop the group and its threat to the United States, King said, "It's going to take more than a few targeted attacks."

King said he would like to see the United States arm and train the Kurds, who are outmatched by the Islamic State group, and the launching of more U.S. airstrikes.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was a critic of former President George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, said in a statement it was up to Iraq's leaders to solve the crisis, and she was "pleased by the president's continued assurances that he will not send U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq."

Obama had held back on authorizing airstrikes as the United States has pressed Iraqi leaders to form a new government that excludes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. U.S. officials consider Maliki, a Shia, a divisive figure whose actions have pushed many minority Sunnis into an alliance with the radical Islamic State.

"There's no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq," Obama said Thursday night. "The only lasting solution is reconciliation among Iraqi communities and stronger Iraqi security forces."

With Tom Brune

and The Associated Press