US President Barack Obama declared Thursday that America broke the jihadist siege of Iraq's Mount Sinjar, where thousands of civilians were trapped, but said air strikes against the militants will go on. The UN refugee agency had said tens of thousands of civilians, many of them from the Yazidi religious minority, were at one point trapped on Mount Sinjar by jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which has overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria.
"The situation on the mountain has greatly improved and Americans should be very proud of our efforts because the skill and professionalism of our military and the generosity of our people, we broke the (IS) siege of Mount Sinjar," Obama said in a statement to reporters. "We helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect (there) to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it's unlikely we're going to need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain," he said. But Obama added that the air strikes, which were begun on August 8, will go on.