Shiite town under blockade by jihadists for well over two months as
preparations to break the siege dragged on.
The aid drops were accompanied by US air strikes and were the furthest
south that US forces have intervened in Iraq, barring reconnaissance
flights, since their withdrawal in December 2011.
The mainly Turkmen residents of the Salaheddin province town of
Amerli, where the United Nations has warned of the risk of sectarian
massacre by the besieging Sunni Arab extremists, have been running
desperately short of food and medicines.
Thousands of Shiite militiamen and Kurdish fighters have been massing
for days for an operation to break the siege, alongside the Iraqi
army, which was left in disarray by the lightning offensive the
jihadists launched in second city Mosul in early June.
Washington launched air strikes in support of Kurdish forces in
northern Iraq on August 8.
But it has so far been reluctant to expand its operations amid
Pentagon warnings that military intervention alongside Baghdad
government forces risks further alienating Sunni Arabs without more
strenuous efforts by the Shiite-led administration to engage the
disenchanted minority community.
Shiite militia and Kurdish forces closed on the besieged enclave on
Sunday, reaching within five kilometres (three miles) of the forces
inside it, militia commander Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati said.
A roadside bomb south of the town killed four militiamen, officers said.
Australian, British, French and US aircraft dropped relief supplies to
the thousands of civilians trapped in the enclave.
"At the request of the government of Iraq, the United States military
today airdropped humanitarian aid to the town of Amerli," said
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.
"The United States Air Force delivered this aid alongside aircraft
from Australia, France and the United Kingdom, who also dropped much
needed supplies."
The aid drops came alongside "coordinated air strikes against nearby
ISIL terrorists in order to support this humanitarian assistance
operation," he added.
He was referring to the jihadist forces who called themselves the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) before dropping the
geographic reference when they declared a pan-Islamic caliphate after
their sweeping advance in June.
"The operations will be limited in their scope and duration as
necessary to address this emerging humanitarian crisis and protect the
civilians trapped in Amerli," Kirby said.
US Central Command said the US supplies dropped included around 47,775
litres (10,500 gallons) of drinking water and 7,000 pre-packaged
meals.
Three US air strikes destroyed "three ISIL Humvees, one ISIL armed
vehicle, one ISIL checkpoint and one ISIL tank near Amerli".
"The US military will continue to assess the effectiveness of these
operations and work with the Department of State, the US Agency for
International Development, as well as international partners including
the government of Iraq, the United Nations, and non-government
organisations to provide humanitarian assistance in Iraq as needed,"
Kirby said.
The US military also launched fresh air strikes Saturday on IS forces
near Iraq's largest dam, north of the militant-held northern city of
Mosul, the Pentagon said.
Kurdish forces retook the dam after briefly losing it to the jihadists
earlier this month, securing the source of much of the power and
irrigation water for the region around Iraq's second city.
The jihadist Islamic State and its allies control swathes of both
northern and western Iraq and neighbouring northeastern Syria where
their rule has witnessed a spate of atrocities that have shocked the
world.
Washington has thus far ruled out any cooperation with the Damascus
regime against the jihadists but has attempted to enlist the support
longtime foe Tehran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Writing in the New York Times, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged
"a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible
coalition of nations" to combat IS.
Kerry said he and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel would meet European
counterparts on the sidelines of an upcoming NATO summit to enlist
assistance, and then travel to the Middle East to build support "among
the countries that are most directly threatened".
US President Barack Obama has acknowledged that Washington has no
strategy yet to tackle IS, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate"
in the territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.
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