Airstrikes purpose is twofold: they are meant to stop Islamic State gunmen from reaching Iraqi Kurdistan and from is capital (Ebril) where US personnel is located in the US consulate and to protect fleeding civilians.
Therefore, it is clear that such airstrikes won’t prevent the Islamic State from strengthening its domain. US intervention will probably discourage jihadists from targeting Iraqi Kurdistan but they won’t defeat them. For the time being, US airstrike remain focused on northern Iraq. Should the Islamic State attack Baghdad US will target its gunmen in order to protect both US and Iraqi citizens in the capital but they are unlikely to get involved over other areas of the Country since, as Obama declared, the United States are not going to get “dragged” into a new war in Iraq but will simply act "carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide".
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