U.S. looking at aid mission to Iraq Turkmens

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's administration is considering a humanitarian relief operation for Shiite Turkmens in northern Iraq who have been under siege for weeks by Islamic State militants, U.S. defense officials said Wednesday.


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The U.S. Central Command also announced three airstrikes in the vicinity of Irbil and the Mosul Dam.

The strikes by unspecified U.S. fighter, attack and drone aircraft destroyed an Islamic State Humvee, a supply truck and three armored vehicles and damaged a building held by militants from the Islamic State extremist group, Central Command said.

The three attacks raised to 101 the number of U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq since Aug. 8. The northern Iraqi city of Irbil was the site earlier this month of U.S. airstrikes to protect Americans helping Kurdish forces repel the militant group. The dam was recently released from Islamic State control.

The contemplated relief mission would be the second recent U.S. military humanitarian intervention in Iraq. U.S. C-17 and C-130 cargo planes dropped tons of food and water to displaced Yazidis on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq earlier this month, supported by U.S. airstrikes on nearby Islamic State fighting positions.

The administration is now focused on the imperiled town of Amirli, which is about 105 miles north of Baghdad and just a few miles from Kurdish territory.

An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people are believed to have no access to food or water.

The head of the United Nations' assistance mission in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, earlier this week called for urgent action in Amirli and described the situation as desperate.

Three U.S. defense officials said a humanitarian mission was under consideration. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they could not discuss internal administration deliberations by name. The timetable for a decision on whether and how to go ahead with the mission was not immediately clear.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not confirm that a mission was being considered, but he said, "This is the kind of situation that the president has ordered military action in support of in the past."

Earnest added that the administration is closely monitoring Amirli's plight.

Information for this article was contributed by Vivian Salama, Sinan Salaheddin and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/28/2014

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