U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday that he has no specific timetable for an end to airstrikes in Iraq, which began Friday, according to USA Today.

Obama spoke at the White House and said that the strikes would continue as long as was required to protect U.S. personnel and Iraqi religious minorities who had been cornered on a mountain by militants.

"I'm not going to give a particular timetable," Obama said. "We are going to maintain vigilance."

The New York Times reported that Obama ordered the airstrikes to avoid a situation similar to what happened in Benghazi, Libya, when four Americans were killed in September 2012, including a U.S. diplomat.

During his speech, the president called on Iraq to continue working to form a unified government but acknowledged that this would take time and likely would be a "long-term" project.

Despite the likelihood of continuing airstrikes, Obama said this week that the attacks will not escalate into another war.

"As Commander-in-Chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq," the president said on his weekly radio broadcast. "Combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq because there's no American military solution to the larger crisis there."

In addition to ordering the airstrikes, Obama also called for emergency drops of food and water to the Iraqis trapped on the mountainside. The airstrikes were ordered to help the Iraqi military break through militant resistance and reach the people on the mountain, the president said.

The United States can't intervene in every crisis in the world, Obama said, but "when countless innocent people are facing a massacre -- and when we have the ability to help prevent it -- the United States can't just look away."

Obama received some criticism from lawmakers about having no timetable for an end to the airstrikes.

"I oppose open-ended military commitments, which the president's actions in Iraq could become," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who added that the president "owes the American people a better, fuller explanation of the scope and strategy of military actions."