U.S. launches new airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq

TBILISI, Georgia — The U.S. military opened a new front in its air war in Iraq late Saturday, launching a series of strikes against Isalamic State fighters who had been threatening to seize control of a second giant dam that generates electricity and irrigation for much of the country.

The airstrikes were carried out against targets near Haditha Dam, which stretches more than five miles across the ancient Euphrates River in western Iraq, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad, according to a Pentagon statement.

The attacks marked a sharp escalation of the U.S. military campaign that began Aug. 8, when President Obama ordered the Pentagon to intervene in Iraq to stem the rapid advance of Islamic State, a well-armed Sunni extremist group that has swept across the north and west of the country.

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