As the following clip shows, the explosions from two F-18s dropping 500lb bombs were large and Iraq officials stated that 45 ISIS fighters were killed (and 60 injured). While The Islamic State's response was to demand blood for US intervention [4], it appears they went domestic first. As AP reports, Iraqi official says hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by Islamic State militants.
[5]
Clip showing US Airstrikes...
And the retaliation was fast...
BREAKING: Iraqi official says hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by Islamic State militants.
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 8, 2014 [6]
As AP reports,
The spokesman for Iraq's human rights ministry says hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by militants from the Islamic State group.
Kamil Amin says the women are below the age of 35 and some are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families.
Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. Amin's comments were the first Iraqi government confirmation that some women were being held by the group. The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.
Finally we thought it worth sharing the desperate spin that analysts are putting on this as a bearish signal for oil...
"In essence we find U.S. air strikes more bearish than bullish for oil as the act finally draws a line not to cross for IS and re-enforces both the stability in south Iraq and in Kurdistan," said Oliver Jakob, an analyst at Switzerland-based Petromatrix, in a note to traders.
Good luck with that.
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Update: US has launched another round of airstrikes:
JUST IN: U.S. military warplanes launched another round of airstrikes on an ISIS target northwest of Erbil, U.S. officials tell NBC News
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) August 8, 2014 [7]
