The US has made a second air drop of food and water to thousands of Iraqis hiding in mountains from jihadist fighters.
Airmen from the US Air Force package meals for a humanitarian airdrop mission over Iraq in August. Photo: AFP / US AIR FORCE / Staff Sgt Vernon Young Jr
The BBC reports that the air drop follows fresh air strikes against militants from the Islamic State (IS).
The jihadist group, formerly known as Isis, has taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria and has also seized Iraq's largest dam. It recently made fresh gains in northern Iraq and is threatening the Kurdish city of Irbil.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the latest air-drop involved one C-17 and two C-130 cargo planes that together dispersed a total of 72 bundles of supplies.
The cargo aircraft were escorted by two F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS George H W Bush, it added.
The aid was dropped into the mountains around the town of Sinjar, where up to 50,000 members of the Yazidi religious sect fled an IS advance a week ago.
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position on the front line in Khazer near Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Photo: AFP
This US Navy handout photo shows an F/A-18C Hornet as it prepares to land on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Gulf. Photo: AFP / US NAVY / JOSHUA CARD / HANDOUT
Fresh air strikes near Irbil
The first US air strike saw two 500lb (227kg) bombs dropped on IS artillery being used against forces defending Irbil.
The Pentagon has since confirmed a second wave of attacks. It said drones and fighter jets attacked a mortar position and a seven-vehicle convoy carrying fighters also threatening Irbil.
The air strikes are the first aggressive American military action in Iraq since the last US troops withdrew two-and-a-half years ago.
Back in June, when ISIS took over Mosul, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki begged for American air strikes to halt the militants' advance - but Washington did not intervene.
Analysts have said the relentless advance of IS fighters, together with the continuing failure of Iraqi politicians to agree on a new government after an election in April, may have swayed the American President Barack Obama into deciding to act now.
