The United States has intensified its airstrikes on Islamist militants in northern Iraq.<br /><br />Extremists from the Islamic State group are now just 30 minutes drive away from the Kurdish capital, Arbil.<br /><br />Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers are co-operating to try to halt their advance on the ground but it is US firepower from the air that could make a real difference.<br /><br />The Sunni Muslim militants have swept through northern Iraq since June, seizing broad swathes of territory.<br /><br />In the past week, the group, notorious for beheading or shooting anyone who defies them, has routed Kurdish forces and forced religious minorities to flee. <br /><br />They have also seized control of Iraq’s biggest dam, which could allow them to flood cities and cut off vital water and electricity supplies.<br /><br />The Pentagon says fighter jets from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf dropped laser-guided 500-pound bombs on militants’ artillery. Other airstrikes targeted mortar positions and an Islamic State convoy. The US has also begun dropping relief supplies to fleeing refugees.<br /><br />President Obama said Washington must act to protect Americans in Iraq and to prevent a “genocide”.
