'We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar': Obama says US and UK forces saved 'many innocent lives' with air strikes and aid drops

This is the dramatic moment a humanitarian air drop was made by Hercules transporters over the Mount Sinjar region in Iraq.
The image - taken from a Litening III reconnaissance pod fitted to a Tornado GR4 aircraft on Wednesday night – was released as U.S. President Barack Obama declared the Islamic State siege of the area had been 'broken' by British and American intervention.
Mr Obama said Islamist fighters had been stopped from massacring tens of thousands of Yazidis by missile strikes and humanitarian aid drops.
He said the US and UK had led a joint mission to provide emergency aid to the trapped refugees, while missile strikes checked the sweeping advance of ISIS militants.
Mr Obama said terrorists were ‘killing and enslaving Yazidi civilians in their custody and laying siege’ to Mount Sinjar.
 

From above: An image taken from a Litening III reconnaissance pod fitted to a Tornado GR4 aircraft, during Wednesday's humanitarian air drop by Hercules transporters over the Sinjar mountain region in Northern Iraq

US President Barack Obama declared victory against ISIL in Iraq at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, last night

He said: ‘Without food or water they faced a terrible choice – starve on the mountain or be slaughtered on the ground. That’s when America came to help

But he said: ‘We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety and we helped save many innocent lives.’
It came after Downing Steet said the situation had improved so much that further aid drops may not be necessary.
The announcement came just 24 hours after David Cameron revealed the Government was working on plans for a dramatic international rescue mission to save the trapped refugees.
Last night a Number 10 spokesman said: ‘The number of people still on the mountainside was now in the low thousands, with Kurdish forces assisting around a thousand people to get off the mountain to safety every night.