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First U.S. air strikes near Baghdad

September 16, 2014 07:57 am | Updated November 16, 2021 05:48 pm IST - WASHINGTON

An Islamic State militant (L) stands next to residents as they hold pieces of wreckage from a Syrian war plane after it crashed in Raqqa, in northeast Syria September 16, 2014. The Syrian war plane crashed near the Islamic State-controlled city of Raqqa on Tuesday, a resident said, and a group that tracks violence in the war said a number of people had been wounded on the ground. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TRANSPORT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

In a sign of its expanding involvement in the crisis in Iraq, the U.S. military carried out, for the first time, airstrikes in the vicinity of Baghdad to halt the advance of Islamic State, the jihadist militant outfit that controls significant territories across Iraq and Syria.

In a statement, U.S. Central Command said that its attack against IS, employing attack and fighter aircraft to conduct two airstrikes Sunday and Monday, was carried out “in support of Iraqi security forces near Sinjar and southwest of Baghdad.”

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Centcom further noted that the strikes destroyed six IS vehicles near Sinjar and an IS fighting position southwest of Baghdad that had been firing on Iraqi forces, and the number of U.S. airstrikes across Iraq now stood at 162.

The latest bombing runs by American fighter aircraft came less than a week after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to ramp up the fight against IS, which received worldwide condemnation for beheading three Western citizens, two Americans and a Briton, and publishing the videos of the executions online.

This week U.S. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel appeared to hint at the possibility of American soldiers directly engaging in combat operations with the enemy in Iraq when he said at a Senate hearing, “If we reach the point where I believe our advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL targets, I will recommend that to the President.”

Similtaneously U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed on with a spate of meetings with prospective allies in a broad anti-IS coalition that Washington is seeking to pull together.

Meeting with leaders and diplomats from more than 20 countries in Paris on Monday, Mr. Kerry appeared to elicit a “mixed bag of support,” in the U.S.-led campaign against IS, with discussions between Washington and Tehran proving to be a stumbling block.

Although Mr. Kerry ruled out military coordination with Iran on Iraqi soil he said, “That doesn’t mean that we are opposed to the idea of communicating to find out if they will come on board, or under what circumstances, or whether there is the possibility of a change.”

There also appeared to be multiplying complexities in terms of the role of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, with a United Nations Human Rights Commission implicating Mr. Assad of crimes against his own people even as the U.S. faced criticism from Russia, “Syria's top international ally,” which called for airstrikes in Syria to be coordinated with Damascus and Tehran.

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