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NEW DELHI — The U.S. launched its first airstrikes into Iraq Friday as Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel warned the U.S. military has enough intelligence to clearly single out and hit Islamic militants if they threaten U.S. interests or the thousands of refugees who fled to a mountaintop.

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The airstrikes redeemed U.S. President Barack Obama’s promise of military force to counter the advancing militants and confront the threat they pose to Iraqi civilians and Americans.

Rear Adm. John Kerry, Pentagon spokesman, said two F/A-18 fighters flying off the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush in the Persian Gulf dropped two laser-guided 500-pound bombs on an Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) artillery piece and the truck towing it. The militants were reportedly near U.S. personnel.

He said it wasn’t clear how many militants may have been hit or killed in the strike. The militants were using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Irbil, the Pentagon said.