American warplanes drop 500-pound bombs in Iraq to stop jihadists

President Barack Obama has carried out his threat. American warplanes have struck an Islamic State artillery positioned in northern Iraq in a bid to stop the advancement of the ISIS jihadists currently sweeping the country.

According to a press statement issued by the Pentagon Press Secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, two F-18 fighter jets were dispatched from the USS George H. W. Bush to unleash 500lb-bombs on a group of Islamic militants towing artillery outside Erbil near U.S. personnel.

The attack was a follow up to Obama's threat last night of authorizing airstrikes in the north of Iraq to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by Islamic State jihadists.

He had declared: “America is coming to help”

Pope Francis had earlier called for an international action to protect the endangered non Muslims including Christians who are trapped around the Sinjar mountains

Islamic State of Iraq jmilitants, in a bid to wipe out non-Muslims had stormed towns in the north dominated by non-Muslims, executing villagers and chasing thousands from their homes into the desert. Many are currently displaced and over 50,000 Yazidis who the militants labeled devil-worshippers have been killed since yesterday

MailOnline reports that “up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren surrounding mountains as their hunters close in.

“But there they face an impossible dilemma - try to make it to the Turkish border and risk being captured and killed by insurgents, or remain on Mount Sinjar without food or water in the searing heat in the hope that aid will somehow get through.

“Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C”.

See gory pictures posted on MailOnline below