BARCELONA, Spain – European heavyweights France, Britain and Germany on Friday rallied in support of US air strikes against Islamic State (IS/ISIS) militants near Erbil.
The Pentagon confirmed Friday that fighters had carried out two separate sorties against IS positions, after President Barack Obama authorized air strikes against the militants to stop them from advancing toward the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil.
Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said the first wave of air strikes had hit an IS artillery position, and a second wave hours later had targeted mortar positions and a seven-vehicle convoy.
Hollande said in a statement that “France is going to look with the United States and all its partners at what action could be taken to provide jointly all the necessary support to put an end to the civilians' suffering. It is ready to play its full part in this.”
He added, “The international community cannot sit on its hands faced with the threats this terrorist group's advances pose to the people and to the stability of not only Iraq but the whole region.”
The US and other Western powers pledged to intervene in Iraq following reports that tens of thousands of Kurdish Yezidis, caught on Mount Shingal for a week after an IS advance, were dying by the dozens. Local officials said that 10,000 had been rescued Friday.
Hollande condemned “the intolerable atrocities which the Islamic State continues to carry out against the Iraqi people as a whole, and against vulnerable minorities, namely Iraqi Christians and Yezidis.”
Meanwhile, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon also welcomed the US intervention in Iraq.
Fallon said Britain will assist the US in the humanitarian operation offering technical assistance in terms of refueling and surveillance.
“We are offering aid of our own which we have to drop over the next couple of days in support of the American relief effort, particularly to help the plight of those trapped on top of the mountain,” Fallon said after a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in London.
He stressed his country would not be involved militarily in the strikes conducted by the US, but said “we welcome what the Americans are doing.”
Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron also backed the US intervention.
Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, said Thursday his country is donating $8.4 million to the UN’s refugee agency and other aid groups to help 140,000 Iraqis who have fled their homes.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also expressed his country’s support for the action taken by Washington.
In an interview with Reuters, Steinemir said he supported the US bombing of IS insurgents, because for the time being that was the only way to stop their progress.
"In the short term air strikes seem to be the only way to prevent an advance by (Islamic State) and to open up escape routes," Steinmeier said.
"Now it's a matter of preventing genocide and freeing the affected people from their terrible plight," he pointed out.
Hollande said France intended to pursue its efforts at the Security Council for conditions allowing the international community to provide assistance and protection to civilians and displaced people in Iraq.
The French president called on the European Union to swiftly play an active role in the joint effort and put in place all possible means of assistance to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
Kurdish sources told Rudaw that the US air campaign against IS positions had begun at 2 a.m. Friday, local time.
They said the positions hit were in Gwer and Makhmour in Nineveh province, where the Peshmerga have engaged the Islamists for days in intense fighting.
