More airstrikes is a start but it’s not enough.
Via CNN:
The U.S. military carried out a new series of airstrikes Sunday against ISIS targets in Iraq, marking the heaviest flurry of activity since the operations began.
In five hours the military struck five targets, including armed vehicles and a mortar position, U.S. Central Command said.
The strikes began at 9:15 a.m. local time (2:15 a.m. ET), the military said.
“All aircraft exited the strikes areas safely,” Central Command said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces recaptured two towns from ISIS, a senior Kurdish official said.
“Mahmour and Gweyr are in Kurdish hands,” Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government told CNN on Sunday. The Islamist militant group had seized the towns Wednesday on a march toward Irbil.
ISIS fighters have carried out slaughter in parts of Iraq and Syria, where they claim an Islamic caliphate. The group has driven tens of thousands of Yazidis into nearby mountains.
Iraqi officials said U.S. airstrikes Saturday killed 16 fighters from ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which calls itself the Islamic State.
An Iraqi airstrike in Sinjar killed an additional 45 ISIS fighters and injured 60 Friday, Iraq state media reported.
Airdrops not enough, U.N. official says
On Saturday, three U.S. cargo planes, accompanied by U.S. fighter jets, airdropped 3,804 gallons of fresh drinking water and 16,128 ready-to-eat meals to Yazidis stranded in the mountains, the military said.
But the airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops aren’t enough to help the estimated 40,000 Yazidis, a United Nations official said.