US strikes Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, Central Command says

US aircraft struck armored vehicles and other militant targets on Saturday in a second day of U.S. air strikes against the Islamic State, an extremist group threatening minorities in northern Iraq, U.S. Central Command said.

"At approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT, a mix of US fighters and remotely piloted aircraft struck one of two (Islamic State) armored personnel carriers firing on Yazidi civilians near Sinjar, destroying the APC," Central Command said in a statement. Several other strikes followed, making for a total of four strikes.

President Barack Obama earlier on Saturday warned Americans the new U.S. military campaign against fighters from the Islamic State, a militant group that is encroaching on the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, could take time. He spoke a day after the United States conducted its first air strikes in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011.

-Reuters