page_title: American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
section_title: August 2016
hierarchical_section_title: American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present) / Chronology / Timeline / 2016 / August 2016
caption_attribution_description: Al Asad Air Base - Lt. Gen Stephen J. Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, and Col. Paul Nugent, commander of Task Force Al Asad, observe a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System strike that destroyed a building housing Da’esh (an Arabic acronym for ISIL) fighters near Haditha, Iraq, Sept. 7, 2016. Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve is a multinational effort to weaken and destroy Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant operations in the Middle East region and around the world.
context_page_description: An American-led intervention in Iraq started on 15 June 2014, when President Barack Obama ordered United States forces to be dispatched to the region, in response to offensives in Iraq conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. At the invitation of the Iraqi government, American troops went to assess Iraqi forces and the threat posed by ISIL.
  In early August 2014, ISIL attacked Kurdish-held territory in northern Iraq, and captured three towns in northern Iraq, close to the autonomous region of Kurdistan. In response, on 5 August, the United States started supplying the Kurdish Peshmerga forces with weapons. On 7 August, the United States also started humanitarian aid air droppings of food, water, and medicine for civilians fleeing ISIL in the Sinjar Mountains. On the next day, 8 August, the United States began airstrikes against ISIL positions in Iraq. Since then, in coalition with the United States, nine countries have also executed airstrikes on ISIL in Iraq. These airstrikes have been operating more or less in concert with ground warfare by Kurdish and Iraqi government forces against ISIL.
context_section_description: On 5 August, the Pentagon announced about 400 U.S. soldiers would deploy south of Mosul to Qayarah airbase to aid in the operation to retake Mosul.
caption: General Stephen J. Townsend observes a HIMARS strike that destroyed a building near Haditha, September 2016
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