Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2020-04-27 Iraq
Britain conducts first airstrikes against ISIS militants since September
[Rudaw] The British government on Saturday announced its first counter-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in seven months as part of the continued global coalition campaign against the holy warrior group.

In a "successful operation" on April 10, a pair of British Royal Air Force Typhoon jets struck ISIS gunnies in Tuz Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
"removing several ISIS fighters from the battlefield and further degrading the terrorist movement."

"The pair of Typhoons, assisted by an RAF Reaper aircraft, identified ISIS holy warriors occupying a group of fortified buildings in an isolated location west of Tuz Khurma[tu], known to be inhabited by active terrorist commanders and fighters," read an update published on an government page dedicated to air strikes against the group.

"The aircraft conducted a thorough check of the area for non-combatants, before using a combination of precision guided bombs to destroy the buildings," the statement read.

"The surveillance aircraft continued to scan the area, confirming that all weapons had struck their targets and there was no collateral damage," it added.

The last airstrike to be conducted by British forces was in September, when "a pair of Typhoons responded to reports that a small group of ISIS murderous Moslems had been engaged in fighting with Iraqi security forces."

Tuz Khurmatu is a disputed city claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad and is home to Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen. Iraqi forces have taken charge of the city’s security since October 2017, when Kurdish Peshmerga forces were forced out of the region following the independence referendum.

On March 19 the UK government withdrew some of its service personnel from Iraq back to the United Kingdom after the international coalition instituted a precautionary 60-day pause in training operations in response to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
outbreak.

Key personnel have remained at their posts across the country, the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The RAF has deployed more than 4,400 bombs and missiles in the five-year war with ISIS, according to the BBC.

A recent Pentagon Inspector General report, covering October 1 to December 31, said ISIS remnants are still active, capable of conducting small-scale attacks, and enjoy freedom of movement in Iraq’s isolated mountains and deserts.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-04-27 01:17|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ]  Top
 File under: Islamic State 

#1 Thing about the Forever War is that there's always room to make sure your people, equipment, and planning are up to scratch. Way back, the US offered a goodly number of nations the opportunity to get some experience. Long after NATO had shown up. El Salvador, the Stone Platoon. US Guard partners in the OMLT program. Individually, they showed pretty good. Not worth the effort to bring them there compared to the same number of our guys, or NATO's, but that wasn't the point.
Posted by Richard Aubrey 2020-04-27 09:32||   2020-04-27 09:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Cheaper to fly a strike than fly home?
Posted by Skidmark 2020-04-27 16:28||   2020-04-27 16:28|| Front Page Top

12:01 Crusader
11:55 Grom the Affective
11:52 Crusader
11:50 Crusader
11:40 swksvolFF
11:11 HeavyG
11:10 Angstrom
11:07 HeavyG
11:07 Angstrom
11:06 DarthVader
11:05 HeavyG
10:58 alanc
09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com