Iraq launches drive to break jihadist siege of Amerli

 

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned that the West would be the next Islamic State (IS) target unless swift action is taken, after Britain raised its terror alert level over the threat of jihadist attacks.

 

The drive to break the more than two-month siege of Amerli, north of Baghdad, came as an NGO said that the IS jihadist group, which has surrounded the Shiite Turkmen-majority town, sold at least 27 women in Syria after kidnapping them in Iraq.

 

In Syria, clashes broke out between Filipino UN peacekeepers and another jihadist group, the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front which is also holding 44 Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage.

 

Iraqi security forces, thousands of Shiite militiamen and Kurdish peshmerga fighters are all taking part in the operation to lift the jihadist blockade of Amerli, sources said. The town has been besieged since IS-led militants launched a major offensive in Iraq in June.

 

Amerli residents face major shortages of food and water, and are in danger both because of their Shiite faith, which jihadists consider heresy, and their resistance to the militants, which has drawn harsh retribution elsewhere.

 

Army staff lieutenant general Abdulamir al-Zaidi said the anti-jihadist operation had been launched with Iraqi air support, and vowed that "we will be victorious over them". The operation has retaken 10 villages en route to Amerli, and reinforcements have been airlifted to the town, officials said on Saturday.

 

Meanwhile the US military launched fresh attacks on IS forces, using fighter aircraft and drones to carry out strikes near Iraq's strategic Mosul dam, the Pentagon said. The United States began carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq earlier this month, but has yet to decide if it will expand that military action into the Amerli area, or to Syria.

 

Writing in the New York Times, Kerry urged "a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations" to combat IS.