Corrections: A photo published Monday showed an EA-6B jet landing on the carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The plane was misidentified in an Associated Press photo caption.
BAGHDAD -- Reinvigorated by American airstrikes, Kurdish forces retook two towns from Sunni militants Sunday, achieving one of their first victories after weeks of retreating, a senior Kurdish military official said.
Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, were able to push the militants of the Islamic State group out of the villages of Makhmour and al-Gweir, some 28 miles from the Kurdish capital of Irbil, Brig. Gen. Shirko Fatih said.
The United States launched a fourth round of airstrikes Sunday against militant vehicles and mortars firing on Irbil as part of efforts to blunt the militants' advance and protect American personnel in and around the Kurdish capital.
U.S. warplanes and drones have also attacked militants firing on minority Yazidis around Sinjar, which is in the far west of the country near the Syrian border.
The strikes hit several armed vehicles of the Islamic State group, destroying three and damaging others. The strikes also destroyed an Islamic State mortar position, a statement by the U.S. Central Command said. The smoking hulks of three vehicles could be seen, only three hours after one of the airstrikes, and the dismembered bodies of three men were sprawled near one wreck. Exultant Kurdish fighters identified the remains as Islamic State militants.
The U.S. airstrikes seemed to have quickly restored confidence, with international flights into Irbil resuming after a pause and business returning to normal. Cheering truckloads of peshmerga fighters cruised the highway leading to Irbil. The Kurdish media hailed what it described as a shift in the momentum of the battle against extremists.
The president of the semiautonomous Kurdish Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, said American military support has been effective thus far, but, he added, peshmerga soldiers require more firepower to defeat the militants.
"We are not asking our friends to send their sons to fight on our behalf," Barzani said. "What we are asking our friends is to provide us support and to cooperate with us in providing us with heavy weapons that we are able to fight this terrorist group."
Barzani met Sunday with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who traveled to Baghdad and Irbil pledging France's commitment to providing humanitarian aid. Fabius also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and called on Iraqi leaders to unite in the face of the escalating crisis.
"The marching order is solidarity," Fabius said. He called on Iraqis to form a "government of broad unity so that all Iraqis feel represented and together lead the battle against terrorism."
Political infighting
But in a surprise speech late Sunday, al-Maliki accused the country's new president, Fouad Massoum, of violating the constitution, plunging the government into a political crisis at a time it is battling the Islamic State militants.
Al-Maliki is seeking a third term as prime minister, but the latest crisis has prompted even his closest allies to call for his resignation. A parliamentary session scheduled for today to discuss the election and who might lead the next Iraqi government was postponed until Aug. 19.
On Sunday night, in a nationally televised speech, al-Maliki declared he will file a legal complaint against Massoum for committing "a clear constitutional violation."
Al-Maliki, whose Shiite-dominated bloc won the most seats in April elections, accused Massoum of neglecting to name a prime minister from the country's largest parliamentary faction by Sunday's deadline. He said the president has violated the constitution "for the sake of political goals."
Al-Maliki, speaking on Iraqi TV for the first time since U.S. forces launched airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops in Iraq last week, said the security situation will only worsen as a result of Massoum's actions.
"This attitude represents a coup on the constitution and the political process in a country that is governed by a democratic and federal system," al-Maliki said. "The deliberate violation of the constitution by the president will have grave consequences on the unity, the sovereignty, and the independence of Iraq and the entry of the political process into a dark tunnel.
Later Sunday, the U.S. State Department responded to Maliki's statements by saying it "fully supports" Massoum, who was elected president late last month.
State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said the U.S. rejects any effort to use coercion or manipulation in the process of choosing a new Iraqi leader. She said the U.S. supports the process to select a prime minister "by building a national consensus and governing in an inclusive manner."
The political infighting in Iraq could hamper efforts to stem advances by Sunni militants who have seized a large swath of northern and western Iraq in recent weeks.
A week ago, al-Maliki ordered the Iraqi air force to support Kurdish forces against the militants, in a rare instance of cooperation between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, which have for years been locked in disputes over oil and territory.
Meanwhile, thousands of Yazidi refugees fleeing the militants continued to pour across the border from Syria into Iraq after a week-long journey through blazing hot mountains. Followers of an ancient religion with links to Zoroastrianism, the Yazidis said the militants had given them the choice of converting to Islam or dying.
As they crossed the border, many Yazidis said they had lost sisters, daughters, young children and elderly parents during the trip. They said militants sprayed gunfire at fleeing crowds, sometimes splitting up families by taking the women and killing the men.
It was not clear how many Yazidis were missing. In the span of 30 minutes, about a dozen displaced Yazidis approached one journalist, pleading for assistance to find their loved ones.
Iraq's human-rights minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said that at least 500 Yazidis have been killed by Islamic State fighters since they seized Sinjar this month.
British officials estimated Saturday that 50,000 to 150,000 people could be trapped on Sinjar Mountain, where they fled to escape the Islamic extremists, only to become stranded there with few supplies.
The United Kingdom said its air force has already dropped water containers and solar lanterns over the mountains.
U.S. and Iraqi aircraft also have dropped humanitarian aid for the minority Yazidis. U.S. Central Command reported that the U.S. military conducted its fourth airdrop of food and water Sunday.
Obama: Iraq needs premier
President Barack Obama warned Americans on Saturday that the new campaign to increase security in Iraq requires military and political changes and "is going to be a long-term project." Obama said Iraqi security forces need to revamp to effectively mount an offensive, which requires a government in Baghdad that the Iraqi military and people have confidence in. Obama said Iraq needs a prime minister -- an indication that suggests he's written off the legitimacy of the incumbent, al-Maliki.
The president made the remarks before leaving on a nearly two-week vacation.
But even though U.S. lawmakers agree the growing influence of Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria is a threat to Americans, leaders from both political parties are sharply split on what role the government should play.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the militants threaten not just Iraqis but also Americans. He said Obama's strikes were insufficient to turn back the militants and were designed "to avoid a bad news story on his watch."
"I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorists' ability to operate in Syria and in Iraq," said Graham, an advocate for using U.S. military force overseas.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also said the militants pose a threat "in our backyard" and were recruiting westerners.
"Inaction is no longer an option," she said in a statement as airstrikes were underway.
The rhetoric tracked closely to that used in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lawmakers from both parties voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to take military action against Iraq in the hopes of combating terrorism.
At the time, many said the United States faced a choice of fighting terrorism on American soil or on foreign soil.
A close White House ally, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Islamic State fighters are a "growing and troublesome" threat. But he added, "We must not send the troops."
"The big question is: What can the United States do to stop it?" Durbin asked.
The State Department issued an updated travel warning Sunday advising U.S. citizens "against all but essential travel to Iraq." The department said it had relocated a limited number of staff members from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the consulate general in Irbil, although both facilities remain open.
"The ability of the Embassy to respond to situations in which U.S. citizens face difficulty, including arrests, is extremely limited," the State Department said.
A breakdown in talks between Washington and al-Maliki that would have allowed U.S. troops to remain in Iraq collapsed in 2008, and Obama withdrew troops in 2011. Al-Maliki now is under mounting pressure to step aside, including requests from U.S. lawmakers.
Lawmakers from both parties largely agreed that a war-weary America has little appetite to send military forces back to Iraq.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said Iraqis need to handle their domestic security.
"There is not a U.S. military solution to this issue," Cardin said.
But Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said popular opinion should not drive national security decisions.
"I am saying we should do whatever we have to do," King said.
Graham and Cardin spoke to Fox News Sunday. Reed was interviewed on CBS' Face the Nation. Durbin and King appeared on NBC's Meet the Press.
Information for this article was contributed by Sameer N. Yacoub, Vivian Salama, Sinan Salaheddin, Diaa Hadid, Bassem Mroue, Bram Janssen, Elaine Ganleys, Colleen Barry, Philip Elliott, Matthew Lee and Julie Pace of The Associated Press; by Rod Nordland, Helene Cooper, Michael D. Shear and Elena Schneider of The New York Times; and by Kathleen Hennessey and Patrick J. McDonnell of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 08/11/2014