The US says it has launched an air strike against militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq

In a televised late-night statement from the White House yesterday August 7th, US president Barack Obama said he has authorized US airstrikes in Northern Iraq to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by ISIS, the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State. This is coming weeks after American military planes carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to thousands of Iraqi Yazidis surrounded by ISIS militants and desperately in need of food and water. ISIS has been ruthlessly hunting and slaughtering members of the ancient Yazidi religion, a faith derived from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient set of beliefs. Pictured left is an ISIS fighter posing next to the body of Yazidi. Pictured right Yazidi on Mount Sinjar carry the bodies of children killed by ISIS..