Obama authorises airstrikes in Iraq

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.