United States has started bombing the Islamic militants in Iraq on Friday shortly after President Barack Obama announced its first military intervention in the war-torn country since 2011.

Two F/A-18 U.S. aircraft dropped two laser-guided bombs on a mobile used by Islamic fighters in shelling Kurdish forces outside the regional capital of Irbil, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

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The bombing is the first military action carried out by U.S. in the Iraq after its troops withdrew from the country late 2011 following its eight-year long engagement in the Iraq war. Obama said these measures aim to prevent a possible "genocide."

Kirby said the limited air strikes was launched after the Islamic militants, known as ISIS or ISIL, advanced to the Kurdish region of Irbil, where some religious minorities were residing and is the location of U.S. consulate and oil corporations.

"As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against Isil when they threaten our personnel and facilities," Kirby said, according to Reuters.

Obama late Thursday announced that it authorized the use of airstrikes in Iraq following the deadly battles between the government and militants, and said the military actions were justified to secure the safety of its residents and minorities living in the area.

U.S. State Department has also started delivering foods and water to the religious minority who fled their communities in the town of Sinjar after it was overrun by the militants, forcing them to either convert into Muslim, pay fine, or face death. Most of them decided to leave with nothing on hand.

U.S. cargo planes airdropped packs of food and water to tens of thousands of Yazidi minority over an area in the mountains near Sinjar, and the aid is expected to continue until needed, Pentagon said.

But unlike the U.S.' role in Iraq civil war in 2003 until 2011, the current military intervention is mostly welcomed by Iraqis, saying the U.S. help is much needed today.

"We thank Barack Obama," Khalid Jamal Alber of the religious affairs ministry in the semi-autonomous Kurdish government said, according to Associated Press.

The Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and the Displaced also welcomed the U.S. intervention, with others even urging Washington to intensify its crackdown on the militants which has seized and controlled at least 17 Iraqi cities, towns and targets.

These include Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam and a military base now under its militant control. 

TagsIraq, Islamic militants, Airstrikes