WASHINGTON: Lawmakers in Washington welcomed President Barack Obama's decision to attack advancing militants in Iraq, but some questioned whether his administration has a long-term strategy to arrest Iraq's disintegration.
Two US F/A-18 fighter jets dropped 500-pound, laser-guided bombs on Friday on an Islamic State mobile artillery piece used to shell Kurdish forces defending Arbil, the Pentagon said, and strikes later in the day involved a drone and four F/A-18s.
The United States has a consulate and, since Iraq's latest security crisis erupted in June, a joint military operations centre staffed by 40 US servicemen in Arbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Members of the US Congress supported the air strikes, but Republicans demanded the president spell out a long-term strategy.
Even Obama's closest Democratic allies made clear they wanted him to work with legislators, not circumvent them.
John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, said he was "dismayed" at the lack of long-range planning.
"The president needs a long-term strategy one that defines success as completing our mission, not keeping political promises and he needs to build the public and congressional support to sustain it," he said in a statement.
There was uncertainty, even expressed privately by some US officials, about Obama's strategy, which he has said is not aimed at a sustained campaign against the militants who are threatening Iraqi government and Kurdish positions.
Friday's strikes were the first aggressive US military action in Iraq 2-1/2 years after Obama withdrew the last American troops, fulfilling a promise he campaigned on to win office in 2008 and ending a bloody US war that began in 2003.
Obama authorized air strikes late on Thursday to avert "a potential act of genocide" of tens of thousands of members of the ancient Yazidi sect who have taken refuge on a desert mountaintop from Islamic State forces. The United States has also begun dropping relief supplies to the refugees.
The White House said the military engagement would not involve ground forces. But reflecting Washington's pressure on Iraqi politicians to form a government
that includes all political fictions, the White House said authorization for limited action could eventually include more military support to Iraqi security forces once the country forms a new "inclusive" government.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the initial US support would be military strikes to protect American personnel in Iraq and to address an urgent humanitarian situation.
Obama discussed the crisis on Friday in a phone call with King Abdullah of Jordan, a close US ally who has already seen IS fighters on his country's border with Iraq.
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