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Airstrikes on ISIS Militants Have Begun, Kurds and Iraqis Say Obama Said to Back Airdrops for Iraqis
(35 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday approved airdrops of food and medicine in Iraq to address a humanitarian crisis among as many as 40,000 members of religious minorities beseiged on a mountaintop where they took shelter after death threats from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to administration officials. WASHINGTON —
The officials did not say when the flights would begin. Kurdish and Iraqi officials said Thursday night that airstrikes had begun on towns in northern Iraq seized by ISIS, but the Pentagon firmly denied that American forces had begun a bombing campaign. They said it was possible that allies of the United States, either the Iraqi or Turkish militaries, had conducted the bombing. United States military aircraft on Thursday dropped food and water to thousands of Iraqis beseiged by Islamic militants on a mountain top in norther Iraq, according to a senior Pentagon official.
A Turkish official said the country’s air force had not conducted any operations. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Turkey had been helping the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq with humanitarian supplies. “There is no such thing,” he said, referring to airstrikes. The military made the announcement after the planes had delivered the supplies and left the area. President Obama was scheduled to discuss the mission in a televised address Thursday night.
Early Friday in Ankara, the Turkish capital, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the country’s top national security officials to discuss the situation. Kurdish and Iraqi officials said Thursday night that airstrikes had begun on towns in northern Iraq seized by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but Pentagon officials firmly denied that American forces had begun a bombing campaign. They said it was possible that allies of the United States, either the Iraqi or Turkish militaries, had conducted the bombing.
An announcement on Kurdish television of what was described as an American intervention prompted street celebrations and horn-honking by residents of towns under siege by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Kurdish officials said the bombings had initially targeted ISIS fighters who had seized two towns, Gwer and Mahmour, near the main Kurdish city of Erbil.
Anwar Haji Osman, deputy minister of the pesh merga, the Kurdish military force, said in the televised statement that his forces had been in contact with the Americans and that the bombings had been carried out by fighter jets. Administration officials said that Mr. Obama was considering airstrikes on ISIS targets in northern Iraq that would be aimed at preventing the fall of Erbil, as the Islamic militants continued to press advances. Such a move would involve the United States in a significant battlefield role in Iraq for the first time since the last American combat soldier left at the end of 2011.
Kurdish officials said the bombings had initially targeted ISIS fighters who had seized two towns, Gwer and Mahmour, near the main Kurdish city of Erbil. A top Iraqi official in Baghdad close to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said that the Americans had consulted with the Iraqi government Thursday night about starting the campaign, the government had agreed and the bombing had begun. For the president, airstrikes would also mark an abrupt turning point in his Iraq strategy. Administration officials insisted that they still had no plans to put ground troops in the country, but analysts said that any kind of military action would open the door for a far bigger American role in the conflict between the Iraqi government and the militant group.
Administration aides said on Thursday afternoon that Mr. Obama was considering airstrikes or airdrops of food and medicine to address a humanitarian crisis among as many as 40,000 members of religious minorities in Iraq, who have been dying of heat and thirst on a mountaintop where they took shelter after death threats from ISIS fighters. Mr. Obama has been reluctant to order direct military action in Iraq while Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki remains in office, but in recent weeks there have been repeated pleas from the Kurdish officials for weapons and assistance as ISIS militants have swept across northwestern Iraq. The militants, an offshoot of Al Qaeda,view Iraq’s majority Shiite and minority Christians and Yazidis, a Kurdish religious group, as infidels.
In meetings with his national security team at the White House on Thursday morning, Mr. Obama weighed a series of options, ranging from dropping humanitarian supplies on Mount Sinjar to mounting military strikes on the fighters from ISIS who are now at the base of the mountain, a senior administration official said. Deliberations at the White House went on all day Thursday as reports surfaced that administration officials were considering either humanitarian flights, airstrikes or both. Administration officials did not say when the flights would begin.
“There could be a humanitarian catastrophe there,” a second administration official said, adding that a decision from Mr. Obama was expected “imminently — this could be a fast-moving train.” Shortly after 6 p.m., the White House posted a photo of Mr. Obama consulting his national security team in the Situation Room. To his right was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. Watching from across the table were Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, and her principal deputy, Antony J. Blinken. On the wall behind them, the clock recorded the time: 10:37 a.m.
The administration official said that “the president is weighing both passive and active options,” defining passive action as dropping humanitarian supplies. “More active, we could target the ISIL elements that are besieging the base of the mountain,” he added, using an alternative name for ISIS, the Sunni extremist group that has taken control of much of northern Iraq. Mr. Obama made only one public appearance, a rushed visit to Fort Belvoir, Va., where he signed into law a bill expanding access to health care for veterans. But aides suggested he might make a statement Thursday night. Before getting into his limousine, Mr. Obama was observed holding an intense conversation with his chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, stabbing his finger several times for emphasis. Minutes after signing the bill and shaking a few hands, he rushed back to his limousine and returned to the White House.
The White House declined to say whether Mr. Obama was weighing airstrikes or airdrops in Iraq, but the press secretary, Josh Earnest, said the United States was disturbed by what he described as “cold and calculated” attacks by ISIS on religious minorities in Iraq. Later, the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, confirmed that Mr. Obama was weighing action in Iraq and warned about the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe. But he declined to offer any details about a potential military operation, prompting a storm of questions about why, if the danger was so dire, Mr. Obama was not acting immediately.
“These actions have exacerbated an already dire crisis, and the situation is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe,” Mr. Earnest told reporters. The campaign of attacks by ISIS, he said, “demonstrates a callous disregard for human rights and is deeply disturbing.” Administration officials said on Thursday that the crisis on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq had forced their hand. Some 40 children have already died from the heat and dehydration, according to Unicef, while as many as 40,000 people have been sheltering in the bare mountains without food, water or access to supplies.
Asked specifically about military options, Mr. Earnest said, “I’m not in a position to rule things on the table or off the table.” But he reiterated that there would be no American combat troops in Iraq and that any military action would be extremely limited. Once Mr. Obama made the decision to approve the humanitarian airdrops on Thursday, administration officials said, the decision for airstrikes became more likely. For one thing, the American C-130 planes that would be likely to drop the food and medical supplies fly low and heavy, and would release the supplies from 500 to 1,200 feet.
“There are many problems in Iraq,” he said. “This one is a particularly acute one, because we’re seeing people persecuted because of their ethnic or religious identities.” Forces with ISIS are not believed to have surface-to-air missiles, but they do have machine guns that could hit the planes at that altitude, according to James M. Dubik, a retired Army lieutenant general who oversaw the training of the Iraqi Army in 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Earnest added: “There are no American military solutions to the problems in Iraq. These problems can only be solved with Iraqi political solutions.” “These are low and slow aircraft,” General Dubik said. At the very minimum, he said, the United States would have to be prepared for “some defensive use of air power to prevent” the militant group from attacking American planes, or going after the humanitarian supplies themselves.
Mr. Obama made no mention of imminent military action as he traveled to Fort Belvoir in the Virginia suburbs on Thursday to sign legislation to overhaul the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs. Top officials were in the meantime gathering at the White House to discuss the possible Iraq action. Military officials have also repositioned satellites for surveillance. The risk to the American crew of the C-130 planes conducting the humanitarian mission “would be much higher if we did not have improved reconnaissance and a protective air capacity,” General Dubik said.
The administration had been delaying taking any military action against ISIS until there is a new Iraqi government. Both White House and Pentagon officials have said privately that the United States would not intervene militarily until Mr. Maliki stepped down. If ordered, the Air Force could use both drones and F-16 fighter jets that are already deployed in the region, while the Navy could use F-18 fighters as well, military officials said.
But administration officials said on Thursday that the crisis on Mount Sinjar may be forcing their hand. About 40 children have already died from the heat and dehydration, according to Unicef, while as many as 40,000 people have been sheltering in the bare mountains without food, water or access to supplies. But it is one thing to use air power to defend a humanitarian operation. Offensive strikes on ISIS targets in northern Iraq would take American involvement in the conflict to a new level, demonstrating deep concern with ISIS’s offensive shift toward the Kurds.
The administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. One official said that any military action would be “limited, specific and achievable,” noting that Mr. Maliki’s political party was supposed to announce a new candidate for prime minister on Thursday, but had not yet. Ever since Sunni militants with ISIS took over Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, on June 10, Iraqis have feared that Baghdad, to the south, was the insurgents’ goal. But in recent weeks, the militant group has concentrated on trying to push the Kurds back from areas where Sunnis also live along the border between Kurdistan and Nineveh Province. It has taken on the powerful Kurdish militias, which were thought to be a bulwark against the advance, and which control huge oil reserves in Kurdistan and broader parts of northern Iraq.
On Thursday, one Kurdish official said in an interview that Kurdish troops had pulled back in the expectation that there would be airstrikes, perhaps by Turkey and the United States. President François Hollande of France pledged his country’s support to forces battling the militant group as well.