Turkey’s late entry into the air campaign against Islamic State (IS) has given the coalition valuable access to Incirlik airbase, but has added further complication, because Turkey is also conducting airstrikes against Kurdish forces in Syria, some of whom have been a key ally for the coalition against IS. Eleven other countries remain publicly committed to Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), but only six of them have approved attacks by their air forces inside Syria. Almost a year after it began, OIR has failed to dislodge IS from large areas of Iraq and Syria, despite more than 5,700 airstrikes “that have taken out thousands of fighting positions, tanks, vehicles, bomb factories and training camps,” according to U.S. President Obama.
“We’re trying to go as fast as we can. The pacing item is the local forces,” said U.S. secretary of defense Ashton Carter on a visit to Iraq this week. Coalition political and military leadership is reporting progress on the training of Iraqi ground forces, yet also warning of a multi-year struggle to defeat IS. The OIR coalition air campaign strategy remains the targeting of IS leadership, infrastructure and oil-and-gas facilities that provide revenue. About 20 airstrikes are now being delivered daily over Iraq and Syria by fighters, bombers and UAVs, but as previously noted by AIN, and confirmed recently by US Centcom air commander Lt Gen John Hesterman, those combat missions are only about a quarter of those that are launched each day, due to fleeting targets; good camouflaging and tactical discipline by IS forces; bad weather including sandstorms; and stringent rules of engagement. Hesterman also confirmed that the coalition had still not deployed forward air controllers (U.S. parlance: JTACS) in Iraq or Syria, relying instead on "the ISR and communications capability we have." The JTACS are working from within the operations centers, he added. Hesterman countered suggestions of slow progress, noting that "this enemy wrapped itself around a friendly population before we even started...there is no well-developed target set for that." He also noted that "it's never been more difficult to identify friend from foe than it is right now in Iraq." Regarding the Assad regime in Syria, Hesterman confirmed that it had chosen not to engage coalition aircraft with the air defenses that it still controlled, and that the coaltion did not liaise with that regime at all.
In related developments, the Pentagon finally allowed the delivery of the first four of 36 F-16s to the Iraqi air force on July 13, after it was sufficiently assured of the security of Balad airbase outside Baghdad. The aircraft had previously been diverted to the F-16 training base at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The U.S. last week claimed the death in an airstrike on a moving vehicle, of the leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria, on the second attempt. The first was last September in an F-22 attack. In mid-May, a senior IS commander was killed in Syria by U.S. Army special forces that were inserted by Army MH-60 Blackhawks and Air Force CV-22 Ospreys.
Meanwhile, a Saudi-led air power coalition of Arab countries has had limited success in altering the ground situation in Yemen, where Houthi rebels and Al-Qaeda affiliates still control the majority of territory. In the four months since it was launched, Operation Decisive Storm (ODS) has included Saudi F-15s, Tornados and Typhoons; F-16s from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the UAE; F/A-18s from Kuwait; Mirage 2000s from Qatar and possibly the UAE; and even Su-24 Fencers from Sudan. Only two of these aircraft have been reported lost: a Moroccan F-16 that was shot down by anti-aircraft gunfire, and a Saudi F-15S that had mechanical trouble. Its pilot was rescued by a U.S. warship off Yemen’s southern coast, but U.S. participation in ODS has been otherwise limited to intelligence support and a KC-135 made available for aerial refueling, according to Pentagon officials. The Saudis have also led a naval blockade of Yemeni ports.
