Plan B Forum

U.S. Planes Start Airstrikes on Iraq Militants

WASHINGTON—U.S. jet fighters hit Islamic State artillery positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the first of what is expected to be a series of American strikes meant to halt the Sunni extremist advance on the Kurdish capital of Erbil, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters dropped 500 pound laser-guided bombs on mobile artillery positions outside Erbil, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

The strikes were the first since President Barack Obama authorized U.S. military action to target radical Islamic forces in the Kurdish city, where the U.S. has diplomatic and military personnel aiding the Kurds.

Mr. Obama said Thursday night he had authorized targeted airstrikes and emergency-assistance missions in northern Iraq, saying the U.S. must act to protect American personnel and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Mr. Obama said the goal of strikes would be to stop militants closing in on the northern city of Erbil, a Kurdish stronghold, or to allow local forces to aid the Yazidis, the religious minority.

The strikes bring to a head soaring concern about militant advances in Iraq, where extremist fighters seized control of areas long considered safe and took over the Mosul Dam, the country's largest.

U.S. expediting military aid to Iraq's Kurds: U.S. senior administration official

(Reuters) - The United States is expediting military assistance to Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces, a senior U.S. administration official said on Thursday, supplementing the Hellfire missiles, ammunition, and anti-tank ammunition that it has been delivering to Iraqi security forces.

"We are now expediting assistance to the Kurds," the official told reporters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not describe what type of assistance would be provided to Kurdish forces.

Big RR wrote: little, if anything will change for the longrun.

Kurdistan represents one of the very few success stories in the region,as well as one of our most reliable partners and allies in the area. Recently they've been forced to withdraw from key positions not because they were unwilling to fight, (like much of the Iraqi Army) but because they were running out of ammunition.

I wonder if now--or soon--would be the right time for us to formally recognize an independent Kurdish state? Certainly if the Iraqi government continues to do nothing to pull itself--and its country--together, that's something that ought to be considered.

WASHINGTON -- A leading Democratic voice on foreign affairs called Friday for the White House to drop U.S. opposition to allowing the Kurdistan Regional Government to sell its own oil.

On Thursday night, President Barack Obama declared that the United States would defend the Kurds, who are facing an onslaught from the militant forces of the Islamic State. By Friday morning, that promise had turned into airstrikes on Islamic State positions threatening the Kurdish regional capital, Erbil. But at the same time, the administration is contributing to a problem that undermines the Kurds at their most vulnerable moment: They are running out of cash.

The Iraqi national government is required to share oil revenue with the Kurdistan Regional Government, but the Kurds say it has failed to do so recently. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has moved to block the Kurds' efforts to sell oil on their own. A State Department official told The Washington Post that the U.S. government is warning potential buyers that they face "serious legal risks." And so, even as the Kurds are under siege, a tanker carrying $100 million worth of their oil just sits in the Gulf of Mexico, one of several such stranded tankers.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Friday that "if the Iraqi government does not resume the financial support owed to the Kurds, we should end our resistance to the direct sale of Kurdish oil."

Brett McGurk, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, has said on Twitter that the Iraqi central government and the Kurds must come to an agreement. "[T]he situation demonstrates why it is incumbent on Baghdad and Erbil to find a negotiated resolution," he said.

But politicians in Baghdad have been unable to even form a government or persuade Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step aside, much less reach a negotiated resolution with the Kurds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/0 ... 62720.html