The U.S. bombing campaign in northern Iraq has entered its fifth day. Obama authorized the airstrikes last week in what he called an effort to halt the advance of Islamic State militants on the city of Erbil, as well as to prevent a massacre of Iraq’s Yazidi minority. Thousands of Yazidis have been fleeing from a mountain where they were trapped for a week by the rebels’ advance. Thousands more remain on Mount Sinjar. U.S. officials have confirmed the CIA has been secretly sending arms and ammunition directly to Kurdish Peshmerga forces who are battling the rebels. On Monday, a top Pentagon official, Army Lieutenant General William Mayville, said the U.S. strikes are unlikely to have a major impact on the overall capacity of the Islamic State.

Lieutenant General William Mayville: “We assess that U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have slowed ISIL’s (Islamic State) operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of Erbil. However, these strikes are unlikely to affect ISIL’s overall capabilities or its operations in other areas of Iraq and Syria.”