U.S. widens Iraq effort, launches airstrikes near Haditha Dam

U.S. fighter and bomber jets conducted a new series of airstrikes against Islamic State militants near the Haditha Dam in western Iraq, the Pentagon said Sunday, marking a further expansion of the air campaign that began last month.

The dam is controlled by Iraqi security forces, but has been under frequent attack by Islamic State fighters intent on taking it over, the Pentagon said.

The Haditha Dam, in Anbar province on the Euphrates River, provides fresh water for millions of Iraqis, as well as their crops. It sits about 165 miles west of Baghdad.

The massive dam, along with the similarly huge Mosul Dam on the Tigris River, has been considered vitally important throughout the U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

“The potential loss of control of the dam or a catastrophic failure of the dam - and the flooding that might result - would have threatened U.S. personnel and facilities in and around Baghdad, as well as thousands of Iraqi citizens,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement.

The new round of airstrikes, which took place late Saturday, is the latest in the Obama administration’s growing involvement in Iraq. Since the air campaign began Aug. 8, the military said it has conducted 138 strikes on Islamic State targets across the country.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said the strikes destroyed six Islamic State vehicles and a checkpoint and damaged a militant bunker.

The Haditha Dam is situated on a road that is about only 100 miles from the border with Syria. It is the second-largest hydroelectric contributor in the power system in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

In addition to the strikes near Haditha, a military aircraft conducted one airstrike against an Islamic State target near Mosul Dam on Saturday. U.S. air support there last month helped Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces take back control of the dam, which is still under attack.

On Tuesday, Obama approved sending 350 additional troops to the Iraqi capital to increase diplomatic security for State Department officials at the Baghdad embassy compound and its support facilities.

There were about 200 to 300 U.S. military personnel in Iraq in mid June. As Islamic State grew in numbers, seized Mosul and began to advance toward Baghdad, the administration began sending more forces to the country. With the 350 newly announced personnel, the size of the U.S. contingent will have increased to 1,113.

The administration has steadily increased its efforts against the Islamic State militants as they have seized large swaths of western and northern Iraq and threatened Iraq’s government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

In the U.S., pressure to act against the militants has mounted since two grisly videos surfaced online, showing a black-hooded Islamic State fighter beheading American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Fighters belonging to the militant Sunni group are known to travel freely back and forth between the porous border of Iraq and Syria.

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