The U.S. will soon begin airdrops of aid for thousands of refugees driven from their homes by Islamist militants in Iraq, according to a defense official.

Planes dropping food and other humanitarian supplies to the refugees would be accompanied by combat aircraft, raising the possibility of airstrikes, a second official said. If the insurgents target the planes, the U.S. and Iraq would consider a larger air campaign against them. The officials asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

David Fuller's view

This is definitely going ahead.  Late Thursday evening US time I saw President Obama give a concise, articulate speech, explaining why he had approved aid drops of food and water to persecuted religious minorities who had fled into mountains in Iraq to escape ISIL terrorists.  He also said there would be some isolated air force strikes against the terrorists but no US troops on the ground.

This put downward pressure on Asian stock markets as Friday’s trading commenced.  Wall Street now has more than enough reasons to experience a long overdue 10 percent plus correction, which will have a knock-on affect.  China often has the lowest correlation with US equities.  More importantly, China is fundamentally cheap relative to most other stock markets.