BAGHDAD — The U.S. military carried out airstrikes on Islamic State militants near the besieged Iraqi town of Amerli on Saturday night, boosting morale for thousands of residents who have been trapped inside for two months, Iraqi officials and the Pentagon said.
The assault, which came alongside a coordinated humanitarian aid drop, marks the second time this month that the United States has intervened militarily in Iraq to prevent an Islamic State attack on thousands of trapped civilians.
On Saturday night, American, Australian, British and French aircraft dropped humanitarian aid to Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen town, at the request of the Iraqi government, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, said in a statement.
"These military operations were conducted under authorization from the Commander-in-Chief to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to prevent an ISIL attack on the civilians of Amirli," Kirby said using an acronym for the Sunni militant group, which captured vast swathes of northern Iraq in June and has claimed to have massacred thousands of Shiites and members of Iraq's ethnic minorities.
"The operations will be limited in their scope and duration as necessary to address this emerging humanitarian crisis and protect the civilians trapped in Amirli," Kirby said.
The Iraqi military deliver aid and evacuate vulnerable residents from the town of Amerli in northern Iraq, which has been besieged by Islamic State militants for the past two months. The U.N.'s representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, expressed alarm on the situation and warned of a possible massacre should the Islamist militants overrun the town. (Iraqi MOD via YouTube)
The long-suffering residents of Amerli, an impoverished farming town in northern Iraq, were relieved that help had finally arrived.
Militia leaders and government officials said a coordinated offensive to clear the Islamic State-controlled towns around Amerli — and eventually the siege's front line — also began after nightfall in Iraq on Saturday.
Amerli residents and local officials said Friday and Saturday that reports of the offensive, as well as U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State militants and aid drops to residents, have boosted morale in the Shiite town, which has accused Washington and Baghdad of failing to stop the siege.
Earlier this month, the U.S. military carried out limited air strikes and humanitarian aid drops to help Kurdish Pesh Merga forces open a humanitarian corridor to thousands of Iraq's Yazidi religious minority who were trapped by the militants on a mountain range in western Iraq.
Karim al-Nouri, a high-ranking official in the Badr Brigades, a large Shiite militia, said that around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, thousands of the militia's fighters moved toward the nearby Sunni town of Suleiman Beg, thought to be under the Islamic State's control. Nouri said the operation was carried out in collaboration with other armed groups, the Iraqi air force and army.
"We are moving from all sides," he said.
The Iraqi military has delivered aid and evacuated some vulnerable residents from the town over the past two months. But the assistance has had limited impact, residents said.
This video released by U.S. Central Command shows a U.S. airstrike against an Islamic State armed truck near Irbil, Iraq, on Aug. 26. (U.S. Central Command)
Last week, the U.N.'s representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, expressed alarm about the situation and warned of a possible massacre should the Islamist militants overrun the town.
More than 20 people have died of hunger and dehydration in the town in the past two months as residents struggled to fight off the attackers, local activists say.
On Saturday, Rafid Moussa, a helicopter co-pilot with the Iraqi air force who said he has flown aid drops and evacuation missions into Amerli, described an isolated population of "simple" farmers desperate to escape.
"We open only one door, and we don't let the stairs down," Moussa said of the rescue missions. His account was borne out by videos he had filmed showing villagers running between mud-brick homes toward the helicopter, frantic to board it.
The helicopter stays on the ground for five minutes, and the crew takes only women and children, Moussa said.
But local residents and fighters in the area on Friday began describing an uptick in airstrikes targeting the militants, raising people's spirits.
"Even though people are hungry, when they see the airstrikes, they know that someone is doing something to help them, and this will end," said Mehdi al-Bayati, a local principal-turned-activist.
But outside experts and members of Iraq's Sunni minority have also warned of the potential for revenge attacks on Sunnis once Amerli is liberated, because Shiite militias with a history of involvement in Iraq's sectarian bloodletting are playing a lead role in the ground offensive.
Last week, two Shiite militias, the Peace Brigades, formerly known as the Mahdi Army, and the Badr Brigades, said separately they had mobilized thousands of fighters to help break the Amerli siege.
Hazim al-Zamili, a Shiite lawmaker who has acted as a "general coordinator" for the Salaam Brigades, formerly known as the Mahdi Army, said Saturday that the militia's fighters were starting to attack Sunni towns ringing Amerli and in the control of Islamic State militants, in coordination with the Iraqi military and Kurdish pesh merga forces.
Erin Cunningham in Irbil, Iraq, Karen DeYoung in Washington and Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Abigail Hauslohner has been The Post's Cairo bureau chief since 2012. She served previously as a Middle East correspondent for Time magazine and has been covering the Middle East since 2007.
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