Pentagon Denies Report US Is Bombing ISIS Targets In Iraq

The Pentagon moved swiftly to shoot down a New York Times report Thursday afternoon that American military forces had bombed at least two places in northern Iraq targeting fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

"Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, wrote on Twitter.

President Barack Obama is preparing to make a statement Thursday evening, the Times reported. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Times reported, citing Kurdish officials, that U.S. military forces struck at least two targets with the intention of routing ISIS fighters who have created what officials have called an urgent humanitarian situation in northern Iraq. ISIS has trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities on Mount Sinjar who belong to the Yazidi religious sect.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that U.S. airstrikes appeared underway. Anwar Haj Othman, deputy head of the Peshmerga ministry, a defense ministry for the Kurdish forces, told the Journal that U.S. jet fighters struck targets in both the Mount Sinjar plains and in a Kurdish area known as Gwair.

The situation has given the Yazidis a near-impossible dilemma - leave and risk being killed by the militants, or stay and hope aid comes their way. UNICEF said that as of Tuesday, about 40 children had already died on the mountain from dehydration and heat exhaustion.

A senior Defense Department official told Business Insider earlier Thursday that the U.S. was considering emergency-relief airdrops of food and medicine to aid the religious minorities. Other reports indicated Obama was considering airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters at the base of the mountain.

"We have been working urgently and directly with officials in Baghdad and Erbil to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to people in need," the Defense Department official told Business Insider. "The Government of Iraq has initiated air drops in the region, and we are in constant communication with them on how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts, and provide direct assistance wherever possible."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday that the White House "strongly condemns" the situation on Mount Sinjar, which he said was "nearing a humanitarian catastrophe." But he repeatedly declined to comment on any specific options Obama was considering.

"I'm not in a position to shed light about the president's thinking at this point," Earnest said.

Earnest reiterated, as Obama has many times throughout the unfolding crisis in Iraq, that any U.S. military action would be limited in scope and would not include any American "boots on the ground." He also blamed the unfolding situation on a political failure by the Iraqi government to bring different sects together in government.

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