U.S. launches second wave of airstrikes in Iraq

USA Today | August 8, 2014

U.S. warplanes made a second wave of airstrikes Friday in northern Iraq against the militants who have besieged a religious group and threatened the city of Irbil, a Pentagon official said.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said the second wave of strikes used a drone to attack a mortar position while four FA-18 fighter-attack planes hit a seven-vehicle convoy outside Irbil.

In a statement, Kirby said "shortly after 10 a.m. EDT, remotely piloted aircraft struck a terrorist mortar position." When the military returned to the site, they were attacked again "and successfully eliminated."

At 11:20 a.m. EDT, the second wave struck the convoy and the mortar position, Kirby said. "The aircraft executed two planned passes. On both runs, each aircraft dropped one laser-guided bomb, making a total of eight bombs dropped on target, neutralizing the mortar and convoy."

The drones involved in the strike were Predators, armed with Hellfire missiles, according to a Pentagon official who spoke about the operation on condition of anonymity because officials were not authorized to speak publicly on those details.

Assessment of the effects of the bombs was clear cut, the official said, because pilots can see the specific targets and the effect of 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles is "immediate."

The aircraft from the first strikes came from the USS George H.W. Bush, an aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf, according to a second Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military details.

President Obama said Thursday night that airstrikes would be used if the militants threatened Irbil, home to a U.S. consulate and a joint U.S.-Iraqi operations center.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/08/obama-iraq-airsgtrike/13767377/