LONDON - Facing a mounting drumbeat of calls on Wednesday for stronger military action in northern Iraq, the British authorities have agreed to send a 'small number' of Chinook helicopters and to transport military equipment supplied by other countries to Kurdish fighters in the American-led campaign against Sunni militants, officials said.
But the government continued to insist that it was focused on humanitarian relief efforts, notably to get water and other supplies to thousands of Yazidis besieged on the arid, baking heights of Mount Sinjar, rather than on offering direct military involvement.
In recent days, with many government leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron on vacation, Britain has slowly stepped up its relief effort, sending three Tornado warplanes on surveillance missions to support airdrops by C-130 military cargo planes.
'Our focus remains the humanitarian situation, particularly those trapped on Mount Sinjar,' Mr. Cameron's office said in a statement. 'Three U.K. aid drops have now taken place, with two C-130s delivering 3,180 reusable water containers, filled with a total of 15,900 liters of clean water, and 816 solar lanterns overnight.'
'We will continue with these deliveries,' the statement said. 'And, as part of our efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Iraq, we are sending a small number of Chinook helicopters to the region for use if we decide we need further humanitarian relief options.'
Chinooks are twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopters often used to transport troops and equipment.
The United States has taken the lead in providing support to the Kurdish region, with the Pentagon sending an additional 130 military advisers to northern Iraq to help plan the evacuation of thousands of Yazidis, a minority religious group.
The deployment brought the number of American military personnel in Iraq to more than 1,000, less than three years after the last combat troops left the country. A senior administration official also said the American military was drawing up plans for consideration by President Obama that could include American ground troops in what is likely to be an international effort to rescue the refugees.
Around 900 American military advisers and security personnel were already in Iraq working with Iraqi security forces and protecting American personnel at the embassy in Baghdad and at other sites.
Britain's limited involvement has drawn complaints from high-profile former military commanders that the country, which played a central role in enforcing a no-fly zone that shielded the Kurds in the Saddam Hussein era, should do more now that Kurds are threatened by Sunni militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Col. Tim Collins of the British Army, who gained prominence in the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, said the British aid effort was a 'pebble in the ocean' compared to what was needed, saying the government had 'left for lunch' while politicians shied from a moral obligation to help arm and train the Kurdish pesh merga forces.
'We should also be taking part in air strikes and urging our coalition partners including Turkey, France, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to take part,' he wrote in The Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper also quoted Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, head of the British Army during the Iraq invasion, as saying: 'Given our history over recent years in Iraq, we have a moral duty to do what we can on humanitarian grounds. I would have no difficulty at all in saying that we should be alongside the United States and up the British ante to the use of airpower, on humanitarian grounds.'
Even within the Anglican Church, there were voices raising the possibility of a stronger military response.
The Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, a chaplain in Parliament, said in a television interview: 'When you hear of such tragedy unfolding before your very eyes, you cannot help but see this is genocide. And I just think that Britain, the European Union, the world community, we have got to respond.'
She added: 'Maybe we need to go to the extent of military action, I don't know. But we need to somehow go to the assistance of these people.'
Some lawmakers have also called for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess to debate the possibility of a broad international campaign against the Sunni militants.
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