Islamic State crisis: Iraq air strikes 'halt IS advance'

BBC News

Iraqi ground forces, backed by air strikes, appear to have halted advancing Islamic State (IS) militants in a key town near Baghdad.

The BBC's Lyse Doucet in the Iraqi capital says the air strikes followed clashes with IS militants, who have been making gains towards the capital.

Amariya al-Falluja, 40km (25 miles) from Baghdad, is a key strategic town.

It comes as a US-led coalition continues to carry out air strikes on IS targets in Syria and Iraq.

The area around Ameriyat al-Falluja is now said to be calm, but there is a standoff along the main road to Falluja to the north, which is controlled by IS, our correspondent says.

In an US television interview on Sunday, President Obama candidly admitted the US had "underestimated" the threat of IS.

He said a political solution - one that would arise out of an accommodation between Sunni and Shia populations - was key to defeating the jihadists.

Over the weekend the Peshmerga fought to hold off advancing IS militants near the northern city of Kirkuk

Syrian refugees have flooded in to Turkey to escape IS militants making gains around the town of Kobane

Meanwhile the Pentagon said US air strikes overnight targeted other IS positions in Anbar province, 80km from Baghdad.

In Syria US war planes also struck four more oil fields controlled by IS militants on Sunday, near the group's stronghold in Raqqa.

The Pentagon said the attacks were "successful", though the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria, said mostly civilians were hit.

The BBC's Mark Lowen, near the Turkey-Syria border, says air strikes in Syria appear focused on cutting off IS's revenue by targeting oil fields.

The overnight strikes hit the provinces of Aleppo, Raqqa, Hassakeh and Deir al-Zour, hitting a grain silo, or storage container, as well as the country's biggest gas plant, according to SOHR.

However the strikes in the town of Manbij in Aleppo province appeared to have only killed civilians, not fighters, said Rami Abdul Rahman who heads the organisation.

"These were workers at the silos. They provide food for the people," he said, adding that the number and information was impossible to verify.

Another activist group, the Aleppo Media Center, also reported the strike on the grain silo in Manbij, north-east of Aleppo city. It said the attack ignited a fire at the facility.

• Formed out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2013, IS first captured Raqqa in eastern Syria
• It captured broad swathes of Iraq in June, including Mosul, and declared a "caliphate" in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq
• Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics
• Known for its brutal tactics, including beheadings of soldiers, Western journalists and aid workers
• The CIA says the group could have as many as 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria