Air strikes in Iraq effective: US

AFP, Sydney :
Air strikes aimed at halting the advance of Sunni Islamic State militants in Iraq have been effective and the US is open to further requests for help, US secretary of defense Chuck Hagel said on Monday.
The United States has conducted three days of attacks by jets and drones on jihadists in northern Iraq whose onslaught has displaced 200,000 people since August 3, including all the residents of Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh.
Hagel said Washington was constantly assessing the situation after President Barack Obama authorised the action to help break the siege of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of civilian refugees from the Yazidi religious minority had been trapped.
“They have been very effective from all the reports we have received on the ground,” he said of the air strikes when asked in Sydney, where he is attending annual Australia-US defence talks.
“We are constantly assessing where we can continue to assist Iraqi security forces and where, as we build partnerships, we will work with the Iraqi government.