US considers "air strikes and food drops" in Iraq. (US President Barack Obama is considering....)

US President Barack Obama is considering ordering US air strikes against Sunni extremists in northern Iraq and humanitarian food drops to beleaguered civilians, according to reports.

US media, citing senior White House officials, said Mr Obama was weighing military options after jihadists from the so-called "Islamic State" attacked Christian and Yazidi minority communities.
"There could be a humanitarian catastrophe there," an official told the New York Times, warning that a decision on military action was expected "imminently - this could be a fast-moving train".


Mr Obama came to office determined to end US military involvement in Iraq and in his first term oversaw the withdrawal of the huge ground force deployed there since the 2003 American invasion.
But recent rapid gains by the Islamic State, a successor group to al-Qaeda's former Iraqi and Syrian operations, compelled him to send military advisers back to Baghdad evaluate the situation.
The United Nations Security Council is to hold emergency talks on the crisis later today, and France has pledged support for forces "engaged in battle" against the IS radicals.......................................http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0807/635631-islamic-state/
7/8/14
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• Up to a quarter of Iraq's Christians are reported to be fleeing after Islamic militants seized the minority's biggest town in the country....

• US President Barack Obama is considering military action to help stranded Yazidi Kurds in Iraq who fled territories captured by Islamic State militants....

• No American Military Solutions in Iraq, White House Says....

• UN warns of 'humanitarian tragedy' as ISIS seizes Iraq's Sinjar

• No room for Christians in Iraq anymore, fleeing residents say

• ISIS seizes Iraq’s largest Christian town

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• U.S.: Iraq near ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

The United States warned Thursday a jihadist offensive in northern Iraq could provoke a “humanitarian catastrophe,” amid reports that President Barack Obama was considering U.S. military action, according to Agence France Presse.

“The United States strongly condemns ISIS’s assault on Sinjar and surrounding areas of northern Iraq,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, using the acronym for the Sunni extremist  group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. 

“These actions have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis and the situation is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

Earnest would not confirm the reports that U.S. air strikes are on the table, but said American personnel were studying conditions on the ground in cooperation with Iraqi security forces.
“It is a situation that that we are looking at very closely,” he said..........................http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/08/07/U-S-Iraq-situation-near-humanitarian-catastrophe-.html
7/8/14 
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