US sending Iraq humanitarian aid

8 Avqust 2014 10:02 | 885

President Barack Obama approved airdrops of humanitarian supplies to thousands of religious minorities in Iraq who are under siege from Islamic militants, but he was still weighing whether to combine that assistance with U.S. airstrikes, officials said Thursday night.

Airstrikes were under consideration in part out of concern that U.S. military trainers stationed in Iraq's north were threatened by the Islamic State group, the officials said. The Islamic State fighters have made gains toward the Kurdish capital city of Irbil.

The U.S. has a diplomatic consulate in Irbil as well as a military operations center that was set up recently to advise and assist the Iraqi military in that region.

Obama met with his national security team throughout Thursday to discuss the crisis as the Islamic State group made further gains. Airstrikes in particular would mark a significant shift in the U.S. strategy in Iraq, where the military fully withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.

Officials said Obama could announce a decision as early as Thursday night. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name.

In New York, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations said there was "some communication between Baghdad and Washington" on the issue of airstrikes. But none were underway, said the ambassador, Mohamed Alhakim, following emergency consultations on Iraq with the U.N. Security Council.

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