President Obama Authorizes Air Strikes, Humanitarian Aid Mission in Iraq

The announcements marked the deepest American engagement in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war. "Today, America is coming to help," Obama said. "The US cannot turn a blind eye." An airdrop of food, water and medicine made at the request of the Iraqi government has been completed, the president said in the statement from the White House. The Dramatic Gains ISIS Has Made in Iraq Why Control of a Terrifying Dam in Iraq Is Life or Death for Half Million People US aircraft, escorted by fighter jets, dropped 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 meals ready to eat. The aircraft were over the drop area for less than 15 minutes flying at a low altitude, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The emergency effort is being deployed to help a group of 40,000 Yazidis, a group of ethnic Kurds, who fled villages in northern Iraq under threat from ISIS. The Yazidis fled to the Sinjar Mountains, in a remote part of northern Iraq near the border of Syria, where they are stuck without food or water while ISIS forces are gathered at the base of the mountains. ISIS has overtaken much of the northern part of Iraq, including the city of Mosul, over the past two months. They are simultaneously waging campaigns for territory in Syria and Lebanon in their quest to create a unified Islamic state encompassing territory from all three countries.