US jets and drones carried out air-strikes outside Erbil Aug. 8 in an effort to drive back the ISIS advance on the Kurdish regional capital. The targets included ISIS positions in Makhmour, about 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil, and a convoy of seven vehicles headed towards the city. The Pentagon said four aircraft executed two passes over the convoy, dropping a total of eight laser-guided bombs. (IraqNews [7]) Peshmerga forces are delivering aid by helicopter to the besieged Yazidis [8] on Mount Shingal. The aid was provided by Rwanga Foundation [9], run by Kurdish politician Idris Nechirvan Barzani [10]. The number of those stranded on the mountain has been upped to some 100,000. US aircraft have also dropped supplies to the mountaintop. (Rudaw [11]) Iraqi military planes struck the ISIS-held town of Gwier, outside Mosul, claiming some 130 militants dead and several humvees destroyed. (BasNews [12])
Shi'ite militant leader Moqtada al-Sadr [13] warned that ISIS is preparing an advance on Baghdad, and said that he would coordinate his Mahdi Army [14] with the Iraqi military to defend the capital. "According to the intelligence and other type of information in our possession, some of terrorist organizations have completed their preparations to enter the beloved Baghdad," the cleric said in a statement. Since ISIS took the north, the Mahdi Army has been staging armed parades in Baghdad. (Azzaman [15])
