The Vatican has given a rare exception granting approval to U.S. military airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq.

“Military action might be necessary,” said Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s ambassador to the United Nations, Agence France-Presse reported. “Intervention now, before it is too late.”

Fearing a genocide of Christians, the Vatican is making a exception to its peace policy in condoning military intervention in Iraq, despite vocally disapproving the U.S. intervention in 2003.

“Those supplying arms and funds to the fundamentalists, [and] the countries tacitly supporting them, must be revealed,” Mr. Tomasi added.

Rabban al-Qas, the Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah, agreed, arguing that intervention is needed “to stop the wolf getting to the flock to kill, eat, destroy,” AFP reported.

The Iraq-based leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, however, argued that limited strikes aren’t enough.

“The position of the American President Obama only to give military assistance to protect Arbil is disappointing,” he said, AFP reported.

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