Most Yazidis off mountain after jets' fire

Troops to the rescue in Iraq is less likely now, U.S. says

Supporters of beleaguered Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki march Wednesday in Baghdad.

Supporters of beleaguered Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki march Wednesday in Baghdad.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- Crediting U.S. airstrikes and humanitarian aid, President Barack Obama's administration said Wednesday that many Iraqi refugees were no longer trapped on a mountain where they had sought refuge from militants, making it less likely the military would have to carry out a potentially dangerous rescue mission.

Attacks across Iraq's north and west by the Islamic State extremist group had displaced members of the minority Yazidi religious community. U.S. troops secretly scouted Sinjar Mountain on Wednesday, finding far fewer refugees there than originally thought.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said six days of U.S. airstrikes against militant targets in the region gave many people an opportunity to get off the mountain. He also said the food and water supplies the U.S. airdropped to the refugees helped to sustain them during the ordeal.

In addition to the U.S. actions, in recent days Kurds from neighboring Syria battled to open a corridor to the mountain, allowing some 45,000 to escape, Kurdish officials said.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that only a few thousand refugees remained on the mountain, far fewer than the 20,000 to 30,000 the United Nations had estimated Tuesday.

"As a result of that assessment, I think it's most likely far less likely now that we would undertake any kind of specific humanitarian rescue mission that we have been planning," Hagel said. "That doesn't mean that we won't."

photo

AP

An Iraqi policeman stands guard Wednesday at the site of a car-bomb attack near a restaurant in New Baghdad that killed eight people. At least 29 people died Wednesday in bomb attacks around Baghdad.

Obama had been weighing a range of military options, including airlifts and humanitarian corridors, to rescue the refugees. Officials said Obama had not completely ruled out the possibility of a mission to rescue those remaining on the mountain but agreed with Hagel's assessment that such steps were now less likely.

A U.S. rescue mission could involve putting American troops on the ground. The White House said any such action would be strictly a humanitarian rescue and would not constitute a return to combat.

Obama has ruled out sending combat troops back into Iraq, where nearly 4,500 Americans were killed during the eight-year war that ended in 2011.

Obama had dispatched 129 troops to Iraq on Tuesday to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis and options for getting the people safely off the mountain.

That process was advanced Wednesday when a team of fewer than 20 U.S. troops was flown onto the mountain by a Black Hawk helicopter for a firsthand look at rescue mission possibilities. They were safely extracted hours later.

While the U.S. has been dropping food and water to the refugees for several days, officials said they began considering a rescue mission because it was unsustainable to let thousands of people remain on the mountain.

"There needs to be a lasting solution that gets that population to a safe space where they can receive more permanent assistance," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, where Obama is vacationing.

Thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority group sought refuge on Sinjar Mountain after militants from the Islamic State extremist group swept through their village in northern Iraq, threatening them with death if they refused to convert to Islam.

The United States has dropped nearly 100,000 military meals and more than 27,000 gallons of water in seven airdrops in the six days since Obama announced a mission to aid the refugees.

In recent days, Great Britain also began making aid deliveries. On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron's office announced that two British C-130s had dropped 23 tons of aid overnight, including about 3,500 gallons of water and "528 shelter kits to provide shade."

In addition to the humanitarian-aid drops, the U.S. has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets, both to protect American personnel in the region and stop the militants from moving on the civilians again.

The Pentagon said the U.S. would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced Iraqis as needed, as well as take steps to protect U.S. personnel and facilities in the region.

Some U.S. airstrikes have been aimed at keeping militants from advancing on Irbil, the capital of the largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region and home to a U.S. Consulate.

On Wednesday, a U.S. drone aircraft attacked and destroyed an armed truck operated by Islamic militants near Sinjar, the U.S. Central Command said.

u.n. emergency

Earlier Wednesday, the United Nations announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes in addition to those who had sought refuge on Sinjar Mountain.

The U.N.'s declaration of a "Level 3 Emergency" will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of the displaced, said U.N. special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe."

The U.N. said it would provide increased support to those who have escaped Sinjar and to 400,000 other Iraqis who have fled since June to the Kurdish province of Dahuk. Others have fled to other parts of the Kurdish region or farther south.

Some of 1.5 million have been displaced by the fighting since the insurgents captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in June and quickly swept over other parts of the country.

European nations announced Wednesday further humanitarian aid and, for the first time, pledged to supply arms to the Kurdish forces fighting the Sunni militants in the country.

Even France, which refused to have anything to do with the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, announced Wednesday that it would send arms to help alleviate a "catastrophic situation" in the north, where the Islamic State had trapped the Yazidis on the mountain and had been threatening Christians.

In Britain, Cameron's government said it was focused on humanitarian relief efforts rather than on offering direct military involvement. But Cameron and other officials said British planes would now be transporting munitions from eastern Europe to the Kurdish forces.

Britain has also sent three Tornado warplanes on surveillance missions to support airdrops by C-130 military cargo planes.

And Germany, which like France opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, announced Wednesday that it would dispatch nonlethal equipment to Kurds, including heavy trucks, bullet-resistant vests, bedding and tents.

"It is something which offends us all, the advance of bloodthirsty extremists," said a government spokesman, Steffen Seibert. "We know it is urgent to act."

Al-Maliki digs in

Meanwhile, Iraq's central government in Baghdad remained mired in political turmoil Wednesday after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he will not relinquish power until a federal court rules on what he called a "constitutional violation" by President Fouad Massoum.

Massoum nominated a Shiite politician, Haider al-Ibadi, to form the next government, putting him on track to replace al-Maliki, whose party got a majority of votes in recent elections. Al-Maliki has argued that he has the right to be asked first to try to form a new government, and that Massoum acted unconstitutionally Sunday when he nominated al-Ibadi.

"Holding on [to the premiership] is an ethical and patriotic duty to defend the rights of voters," al-Maliki said in his weekly address to the nation, insisting his actions were meant to "protect the state."

Al-Maliki has grown increasingly isolated, with Iraqi politicians and much of the international community lining up behind al-Ibadi. Al-Ibadi was picked to form a new government that can unite the country in the face of the Sunni militant onslaught, which many blame al-Maliki for fueling by pro-Shiite policies that alienated the Sunni minority.

Widespread discontent with al-Maliki's rule has reached the point where both Saudi Arabia and Iran -- regional rivals often bitterly divided over Iraq -- have expressed support for al-Ibadi. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations also have offered support for new leadership.

In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed hope Wednesday that "a government will be formed so that they can give the necessary and appropriate response to the sedition-makers." Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it hoped al-Ibadi will establish "a comprehensive national government that includes all components of the Iraqi people."

The U.N. Security Council said Wednesday that it was encouraged by Massoum's decision to nominate a new prime minister-designate and urged al-Ibadi to work swiftly to form "an inclusive government that represents all segments of the Iraqi population and that contributes to finding a viable and sustainable solution to the country's current challenges."

At a meeting between al-Maliki and senior military commanders broadcast on state television Tuesday, the incumbent premier warned that security forces should not get involved in politics. He also raised the specter of further unrest by saying Sunni militants or Shiite militiamen might put on military uniforms and try to take control of the streets and "make things worse."

Iraqi troops imposed heightened security Wednesday in Baghdad. Tanks and Humvees were positioned on Baghdad bridges and at major intersections, with security personnel more visible than usual as about 100 al-Maliki supporters rallied at Firdous Square.

Meanwhile, attacks in and near Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded scores more, police said.

A car bomb in eastern New Baghdad killed eight, and six people, including four police officers, died when a car bomb struck a checkpoint in western Baghdad.

A bomb at a central market killed five people, and two died in a bombing in the commercial Karrada district. A car bomb in the Baiyaa neighborhood killed four, and four more died in a mortar attack north of the capital.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Robert Burns, Lolita C. Baldor, Vivian Salama, Sameer N. Yacoub, Edith M. Lederer, Sinan Salaheddin, Adam Schreck and Juergen Baetz of The Associated Press; by Nancy A. Youssef and Anita Kumar of McClatchy Newspapers; by Tim Arango, Ali Hamza, Suzanne Daley, Alan Cowell, Scott Sayare, Alison Smale and Thomas Erdbrink of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/14/2014