US begins bombing ISIS, with first strike on Islamists' artillery already confirmed: Obama carries out his threat to stop the spread of ISIS in a bid to save thousands of lives

• GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: This story contains images of death that some readers may find disturbing
  
• 'Today America is coming to help', he told Iraqis in an address to the nation broadcast live on U.S. television
• Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities have been driven from their homes as ISIS jihadists storm towns
  
• Some 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children - fled to hills after ISIS took Sinjar, the Yazidis' heartland in Iraq
  
• ISIS calls Yazidis devil worshippers because of their beliefs that predate Islam, Christianity and Judaism
  
• Obama said U.S. warplanes had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to Yazidis holed up in Sinjar hills
  
• David Cameron welcomes airstrikes to help Iraqis 'in their hour of desperate need' but rules out British military action
  
• Pope begs world leaders to step in as Iraq's main Christian city is sacked, sending thousands of Christians fleeing
  

By MATTHEW BLAKE and DAVID MARTOSKO

PUBLISHED: 08:05 GMT, 8 August 2014 | UPDATED: 13:44 GMT, 8 August 2014

American warplanes have bombarded an Islamic State artillery position in northern Iraq in a bid to halt the ISIS hoard sweeping the country and save thousands of innocent lives.

Two F/A18 fighter jets were dispatched from the USS George H. W. Bush to unleash 500lb laser-guided bombs on a group of Islamic militants towing artillery outside Kurdish capital Erbil, where U.S. troops are stationed as well as the American consulate.

Somewhat unusually, news of America's first military offensive in Iraq since it withdrew from the country in 2011 was released by Rear Admiral John Kirby through Twitter. 

'US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery. Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending Erbil, near US personnel,' he tweeted.

The assault swiftly follows Barack Obama's dramatic call to arms last night in which he authorised airstrikes to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by Islamic State jihadists as he declared: 'America is coming to help.'

It is the U.S. military's first active involvement in Iraq since it withdrew from the embattled country three years ago.

The attack comes as the chaos engulfing Iraq escalated rapidly yesterday with a re-energised Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant storming towns in the north, executing villagers and chasing thousands from their homes into the desert.

Already dozens of Yazidis - who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshippers because of their ancient beliefs which predate Christianity and Islam - have been murdered since the extremist fighters overran the town of Sinjar yesterday.

Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren surrounding mountains as their hunters close in. 

Dailymail