US, Defending Kurds in Syria, Expands Airstrikes Against Islamic State Militants

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said on Saturday that it had conducted its first strikes against Islamic State targets in a besieged Kurdish area of Syria, saying it had destroyed two armored vehicles in an area that has been subject to a weeklong onslaught by the militants.

The action appeared to mark the opening of a new front for American airstrikes in Syria, and came on a day when several other strikes took place in Raqqa, the de facto headquarters of the Islamic State's forces. It put the United States in direct defense of the Kurds in an area that, village by village, has been falling to Islamic State forces.

The United States and its allies have recently said that they have begun direct arms shipments to the Kurds, rather than funneling all their help through the Iraqi government.

In a statement, the United State Central Command said that the strikes had been carried out with forces from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and that 'all aircraft exited the strike areas safely.' The administration has been eager to show that those three Arab states, all dominated by Sunnis, were part of the effort against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.

The statement also said there were three airstrikes near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, that destroyed four of the Islamic State's armed vehicles and one of its fighting positions.

But in New York, where President Obama attended the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last week, officials from several American allies said they were concerned that airstrikes alone, without a coordinated set of ground attacks, would halt but not reverse the Islamic States' territorial gains.