U.S. military officials say an armed American MQ-1 Predator drone has attacked and destroyed a mortar position of Islamic militants in northern Iraq. As WaPo reports [6], the drone attack marks a departure for the U.S. military, which had said previously that drones were flying missions over Iraq only to collect intelligence. No boots hit the ground in the carrying out of this action...
As NBC reports, [7]
An American MQ-1 drone strike took out a firing position that Islamic militants used to target Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, according to the U.S. military.
The military said in a statement that a U.S. drone struck and destroyed an ISIS mortar position at around 7:55 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The mortar position was firing on Kurdish forces defending members of the Iraq's Yazidi religious minority who were trying to evacuate the area, U.S. Central command added.
The MQ-1 Predator:
[8]
Update:
- U.S. SAID TO LAND TROOPS ON MT. SINJAR IN IRAQ, ABC NEWS SAYS
More [9]:
United States Marines, special forces and the USAID disaster assistance relief team briefly landed today on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq, a U.S. official told ABC News.
It was the first time ABC News has learned of any Americans landing on the mountain, where thousands of Yazidis are trapped and facing a humanitarian crisis.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Tuesday that the United States has sent a 130 member military assessment team to Erbil in the autonomous Iraqi province ofKurdistan to determine what further assistance the U.S. can provide to the Yazidis.
Lol: "briefly"...
It didn't take long for Obama's latest stern promise that no US troops would be on the ground to become... troops are now on the ground.
The good news, as US troops are about to fight ISIS mercenaries armed with US weapons, is that for now at least, no US troops have died in this most recent US intervention in Iraq - the latest in a series of US humanitarian liberation of the middle east country beginning in 1990.
But what happens when the first bodybags come home? What will the Nobel Peace Prize winning president's spin be then?
