As US drones and fighter jets carried out more strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq, President Barack Obama set out on a two-week summer vacation at Massachusetts Island with family.
Like every year, Obama will celebrate the summer at an island off the Massachusetts coast, with First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Shasha, and his dogs Bo and Sunny.
However, the President is expect to sneak back to Washington for two days for some official work.
The President’s vacation came only after he ordered targeted military strikes on the ISIS in Iraq, as the Sunni extremists wreaked havoc again by taking the town of Sinjar a week ago that forced the residents to flee to the mountains. According to the reports, tens of thousands of people are hiding in the mountains and risk starving to death.
A UNICEF report said that dozens of Sinjar children have died of dehydration.
President Obama ordered strikes on the ISIS on August 8, saying that the US was acting “to protect our American diplomats and military advisors serving in the city of Erbil”.
The initial round of strikes targeted the IS militants targeting the Kurdish city of Irbil.
But the latest strike that was launched on Saturday hit those IS militants which were firing on Yazidi people near Sinjar.
According to a US military statement, in the latest strike was carried out using fighter jets and drones that destroyed an IS armoured personnel carrier (APC) that was firing on civilians, reported the BBC.
Secondly, the President said that the US was arranging humanitarian aid for thousands of Iraqis who were trapped under the mountains.
The US State department and Pentagon posted videos of the US humanitarian aid being airdropped to Iraqi civilians trapped on a mountain by ISIL.
