IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — After unleashing its first airstrikes against militants of the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, the U.S. has made a second airdrop to thousands who have fled the group's advance and find themselves trapped on a mountaintop.

The Pentagon says three planes dropped 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees, members of the Yazidi religious minority. Included in the aid were more than 28,000 meals and more than 1,500 gallons of water.

Iraqi officials say the militants have seized hundreds of Yazidi women, citing reports from the victims' families.

Yesterday, U.S. forces launched two rounds of airstrikes against militant forces. Two F/A-18 jets dropped 500-pound bombs on a piece of artillery and the truck towing it. The Pentagon says the militants were using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and home to a U.S. consulate and about three dozen U.S. military trainers.

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