WASHINGTON, Aug. 13-- The U.S. government is considering a range of military options to rescue the thousands of Iraqi civilians trapped at mountain in northwestern Iraq by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a senior official said on Wednesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama and his national security team are expected to review those options "in a matter of days," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser of the President.
Rhodes reiterated Obama's statements ruling out the reintroduction of U.S. forces for ground combat in Iraq. But he added that "there are a variety of ways in which we can support the safe removal" of the Yazidis, who are stranded atop Sinjar Mountain with limited supplies of food and water and who face threat of attack by ISIL forces.
Rhodes, speaking at a briefing in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where Obama is spending his vacation, said that the 130 military advisers recently deployed to Iraq would "make recommendations" about how to follow through with plans to get people trapped on the mountain off.
According to the official, the U.S. military personnel will " not be in a combat role" and instead will be in Iraq "on a temporary basis to make an assessment."
While conducting a dozen of airstrikes against the advance of ISIL forces, the U.S. military airplanes have also made several humanitarian airdrops on the mountain, providing 100,000 meals and 27,000 gallons of water for the trapped civilians in Sinjar Mountain.
Day|Week|Month