[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
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS)
...
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.
Related:
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-19 Coalition training mission in Iraq and Syria ‘will resume as conditions permit’
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-14 ISIS militants kill police officer in Hawija checkpoint attack: military
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-13 Car bomb kills policeman, injures two more in Kirkuk: police spokesperson
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-19 Coalition training mission in Iraq and Syria ‘will resume as conditions permit’
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-14 ISIS militants kill police officer in Hawija checkpoint attack: military
Tuz Khurmatu: 2020-04-13 Car bomb kills policeman, injures two more in Kirkuk: police spokesperson