The United States has bombed militants near Baghdad in support of Iraqi forces, striking close to the capital for the first time in its expanded campaign against ISIL ’jihadists’.

The United States has bombed militants near Baghdad in support of Iraqi forces, striking close to the capital for the first time in its expanded campaign against ISIL 'jihadists'.


The US air strike against ISIL fighters in the Sadr al-Yusufiyah area, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Baghdad, came as world diplomats pledged to support Iraq in its fight against the militants and less than a week after US President Barack Obama ordered a "relentless" war against IS.

"US military forces continued to attack (IS) terrorists in Iraq, employing attack and fighter aircraft to conduct two air strikes Sunday and Monday in support of Iraqi security forces near Sinjar and southwest of Baghdad," the US Central Command said in a statement.

"The air strike southwest of Baghdad was the first strike taken as part of our expanded efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions to hit (ISIL) targets as Iraqi forces go on offence, as outlined in the president's speech last Wednesday."

The strikes destroyed six ISIL vehicles near Sinjar and an ISIL position southwest of Baghdad that had been firing on Iraqi forces.

They bring the number of US air strikes across Iraq to 162.

Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta on Tuesday said the US "carried out an important strike against an enemy target in Sadr al-Yusufiyah."

In a related context, the US military's top officer on Tuesday raised the possibility that American troops serving as advisers to Iraqi forces could eventually be sent on combat missions against ISIL extremists.