A day after the Islamic terrorist group ISIS beheaded a French national, French warplanes struck multiple targets inside Iraq.
France’s air force made multiple bombing raids on oil fields that were under the control of ISIS in an attempt to keep the terrorists from using the oil to fund their activities. The strikes were part of a multinational coordinated assault.
The strikes by France were the country’s first since the start of the assault on ISIS.
The strikes took place as President Obama addressed the United Nations about the ISIS threat.
“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama said.
Britain is the next country believed to be joining the airstrikes. Prime Minister David Cameron will be seeking authorization from parliament on Friday.
The United States and Arab allies began a series of airstrikes on the terrorist group ISIS.
The strikes happened inside Syria near the town of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed “capital” for the terrorists.
“I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIS terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack missiles,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time.”
In addition to U.S. forces, aircraft from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Intelligence reports say that most of the 30,000 ISIS terrorists are inside Syria and without strikes inside that country it would be impossible to break the ISIS command structure.
The strikes come just days after 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled to Turkey because of advances from the terrorists.
President Obama held a press conference to address the beheading of an American journalist by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and made an unusually strong denouncement of an Islamic group.
“The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others,” President Obama said, referring to the group by their previous name, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The President went on to denounce the group has not being a religious group at all because of their extreme views and actions.
“No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day,” the President said. “ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision, and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.”
The President ordered the U.S. military to continue to conduct air strikes against positions of the terrorists in northern Iraq. After the President’s address, the military carried out a series of strikes against terror positions near the country’s biggest dam to help support Iraqi and Kurdish troops who recaptured the dam earlier this week.
The President also spoke of the victim of the killing, photojournalist James Foley.
“Jim Foley’s life stands in stark contrast to his killers,” President Obama said.
All U.S. airlines are now required to have authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration or another U.S. governmental agency before flying in the airspace above Iraq.
All flights are prohibited “due to the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict” according to the agency.
The announcement came after two airstrikes that targeted the Islamic State militants outside of Erbil.
Officials stated that the FAA’s ban will be reevaluated by the end of the year.
“Today, America is coming to help,” President Obama stated after authorizing airstrikes in northern Iraq against the Islamic State.
After weeks of weighing options, the administration took action due to the unrelenting progress of the Islamic extremists and the mounting humanitarian crisis.
The most recent crisis involves the Yazidis, a small religious minority, who are currently trapped on a mountaintop after fleeing their homes and are surrounded by Islamic militants. The United States has made several airdrops containing food and water to the thousands of trapped Yazidis, but only recently took action against the surrounding Islamic militants.
Despite a deeper involvement in the conflict, President Obama assured the public that it would not lead to U.S. involvement in a ground war in Iraq.
On Thursday night, President Obama authorized U.S. military action against the Sunni extremist advance on the Kurdish capital of Erbil leading to the first of many strikes that hit Islamic State artillery positions in northern Iraq.
Five hundred pound bombs were dropped by U.S. F-18 fighters just outside of Erbil according to the Pentagon.
President Obama claims the goal of these strikes is to stop militants from seizing Erbil and aiding the Yazidis, a religious minority.
Washington has considered direct military involvement in the past, but has delayed action for two reasons: the slowing of the Sunni militants advance in the past and to pressure Iraqi lawmakers to form a new government that might counter the militants.
