DHAKA: US warplanes carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq near ISIS-controlled Mosul Dam early Saturday morning, the Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported, citing eyewitnesses.
CNN confirmed that a U.S. and Iraqi military operation aimed at retaking the country's largest hydroelectric dam from the so-called Islamic State was scheduled to begin early Saturday morning (Friday at 6 p.m. ET).
The operation was to begin with U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes against ISIS positions, with Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces following up on the ground.
U.S. fighter jets began carrying out the strikes early Saturday morning local time, Rudaw reported.
News of the airstrikes unfolded the same day the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at curbing the support -- money and arms -- flowing to the al Qaeda splinter group that has aided its rapid and brutal advance across Iraq.
"It has seized some of the country's precious natural resources and taken control of critical infrastructure," Samantha Power, the U.S. representative, said, referring to ISIS.
"Now (ISIS) has the ability to block the flow of electricity and control access to the water supplies on which people depend."
ISIS seized control of Mosul Dam this month following fierce fighting. The dam sits on Iraq's Tigris River about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the city of Mosul, which fell to the extremist group in June when it swept from Syria into Iraq.
Should the dam fail or ISIS fighters open its floodgates, massive flooding could result.
The resolution sanctioned six people, described as financiers and supporters of ISIS' actions in Iraq and Syria, by freezing their assets and banning them from traveling.
While the resolution called for the use of economic sanctions and military force, if necessary, to ensure that ISIS militants "disarm and disband," it stopped short of authorizing the immediate use of U.N.-sanctioned military action against ISIS.
Under the resolution, a team charged with monitoring the activities of ISIS has been ordered to investigate the extremist group's resources, funding and recruitment and report back with recommendations to the Security Council within 90 days.
Source: CNN
BDST: 0903 HRS, AUG 15, 2014
