U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Thursday night he had
authorised the Pentagon to launch targeted airstrikes if needed to
protect Americans from Islamic militants in northern Iraq and help Iraqi
security forces protect civilians under siege, threatening to revive
U.S. military involvement in the country’s long sectarian war. In a televised late-night statement from the White House, Mr. Obama also
said American military forces had already carried out airdrops of
humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities
desperately in need of food and water. “Today America is coming to help,” he declared. The announcements reflected the deepest American engagement in Iraq
since U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.
