The Islamic State militant group that has seized large parts of Iraq and drawn the first American air strikes since the end of the occupation in 2011 have threatened to attack U.S. targets "in any place" in revenge for American air strikes against them in Iraq, Reuters reported.
The extremist group posted a chilling video featuring a photograph of an American who was beheaded during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and victims of sniper shootings, accompanied by a statement in English: "We will drown all of you in blood."
Unlike Al Qaeda, the Islamic State has so far focused on seizing land in Iraq and Syria for its self-proclaimed caliphate, not spectacular attacks on Western targets. However, U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have been helping Kurdish fighters take back some territory captured by Islamic State militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.
President Barack Obama announced Monday that Kurdish peshmerga troops, supported by U.S. jets, had recaptured the strategically important Mosul Dam, hailing the offensive as a "major step forward." But he also claimed that the Islamic State posed a threat to Iraq and the entire region.
"This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together in taking the fight to ISIS (Islamic State), and if they continue to do so they will have the strong support of the United States of America," Obama told a news conference.
Over the past three days, U.S. military aircraft have carried out 35 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq, destroying more than 90 targets, the Pentagon said Monday. As fighting intensified, Islamic State militants were said to have killed dozens of Kurdish fighters and captured 170 of them, according to a Twitter site that supports the group.
The latest advance by the Islamic State, an Al Qaeda offshoot, also alarmed the Baghdad government and its Western allies after it sent tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi ethnic minority and Christians fleeing for their lives.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stepped down last week after criticism that his policies, by favoring Shiites, had encouraged some members of the Sunni minority to join the Islamic State insurgency, UK MailOnline reported.
