Free Republic

Obama’s no-boots-on-the-ground pledge is keeping America from fighting an effective air campaign in Iraq and Syria. Within the U.S. Air Force, there’s mounting frustration that the air campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is moving far more slowly than expected. Instead of a fast-moving operation with hundreds of sorties flown in a single day—the kind favored by many in the air service—American warplanes are hitting small numbers of targets after a painstaking and cumbersome process. The single biggest problem, current and former Air Force officers say, is the so-called kill-chain of properly identifying and making sure the right target...

UN envoy calls on Turkey to prevent massacre in Kobani Suruc: Militants captured the headquarters of Kurdish fighters defending the battleground Syrian town of Kobani on Friday as a UN envoy warned of a looming “massacre” by Daesh. Outgunned Kurdish militia were struggling to prevent the militants closing off the last escape route for the thousands of civilians still in or near the town, prompting an appeal for urgent military assistance. US-led warplanes have intensified air strikes against Daesh fighters who have been attacking Kobani for three weeks but the Pentagon has warned that, without a force on the ground...

Airstrikes that appear to be coordinated with Kurdish guerrillas have escalated dramatically, but they may not be enough to save the town. SURUC, Turkey — High in the blue sky above I think I can make out a dart of silver—or maybe it is a trick of sunlight and puffy white clouds and my imagination trying to match the sound of warplanes zooming back and forth with an actual glimpse of them. All day there has been the distant roar of U.S. fighters over the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani, and for much of Wednesday night, too. One local...

Overnight the Australian Air Task Group operating in the Middle East attacked its first target in Iraq. Two bombs were dropped from an F/A-18F Super Hornet on to an ISIL facility. All aircraft exited the target area safely and returned to base. No further details of this mission are available at this time. Further information will be provided when Defence conducts its next Operation OKRA update briefing.

MURSITPINAR, Turkey // The US-led coalition ramped up its aerial bombardment of ISIL positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani on Thursday as the extremist group battled street by street with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements from surrounding areas. The battle for the town near the Turkish border has emerged as a major test for the US-led air campaign aimed at rolling back and eventually destroying the extremist group, and has strained ties with Nato ally Turkey, which is at odds with Washington over its long-term strategy in Syria. The US Central Command said five airstrikes south...

Scores of IS militants reported killed in Iraq Big News Network (IANS) Thursday 9th October, 2014 At least 220 militants of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical organisation were killed at dawn Thursday when their convoy was attacked by planes of the US-led international coalition in northern Iraq, the head of security in Nineveh province, Mohamed Ibrahim al-Bayati, told Spanish news agency Efe.Al-Bayati said the convoy included more than 25 vehicles transporting fighters, weapons and military equipment, which had left the Rabia area west of Mosul, bordering Syria, bound for Ramadi, in the western province of Al Anbar, a jihadi...

Officials in Baghdad say that militants with the Islamic State group have downed an Iraqi military helicopter near the refinery town of Beiji, killing the two pilots on board. A military aviation official says the militants used a shoulder-fired missile to take down the Bell 407 helicopter north of the town this morning. The news comes as the UN called for a dramatic military escalation in Syria to prevent the strategic town of Kobane succumbing to 'rape and massacre' by brutal Islamic State militants. The organisation's special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the international community 'cannot sustain' another...

As the Army of the Islamic State continues to expand its control of Iraq, an Iraqi journalist reports that the American-led airstrikes are doing nothing to slow down IS An Iraqi journalist based in the holy city of Najaf spoke to Canada Free Press about the situation in his country as the Army of the Islamic State press upon the gates of Baghdad. President Barack Obama is not having an impact on war raging in Iraq, said Mustafa Aliraqi. “If he is unwilling to take the battle to ISIS, Iraqis are willing. He needs heavily arm Iraq.” Otherwise, there is...

BAGHDAD (AP) -- After two months, the U.S.-led aerial campaign in Iraq has hardly dented the core of the Islamic State group's territory. The extremist fighters have melted into urban areas when needed to elude the threat, and they have even succeeded in taking new territory from an Iraqi army that still buckles in the face of militants. In neighboring Syria, days of airstrikes have been unable to stop militants on the verge of capturing a strategic town on the Turkish border. The limited results show the central weakness of the campaign: There is only so much that can be...

MURSITPINAR, Turkey - U.S.-led coalition warplanes pounded Islamic State (ISIS) positions in the key Syrian border town of Kobane on Tuesday, only hours after the jihadists had breached the city lines. White smoke billowed into the air as the bombs struck western parts of the city, while hundreds of Kurdish men cheered and whistled just across the border in Turkey. The strikes appeared to have taken on a sense of urgency after isolated bombings around Kobane over the weekend did little to stop an ISIS advance. A Rudaw reporter saw two air strikes within 15 minutes hit meters from the...

THE HAGUE: Dutch F-16s today carried out their first strikes on the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, the defence ministry said, with militants possibly killed. "Two Dutch F-16s this morning used weapons for the first time in Iraq against the IS terror group. They dropped three bombs on armed IS vehicles that were shooting at (Kurdish) Peshmerga fighters in the north of the country," the statement said. "Vehicles were destroyed in the attack and IS fighters possibly killed," it added. The F-16s are being deployed as close air support, backing up Iraqi and Kurdish ground troops fighting IS militants.

Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq “will adapt very quickly” to an expanded campaign of air strikes by embedding themselves in towns, Australia’s defence minister has said. David Johnston made the prediction on Monday as the Australian Defence Force (ADF) confirmed two RAAF F/A-18 Super Hornets had completed their first armed combat mission over northern Iraq without firing on any targets. Johnston said RAAF aircraft would deploy on an operation and wait to be assigned targets, but there were a large number of coalition partners and aircraft participating in air strikes. “It may be that from day to day, time...

Australian fighter jets have flown their first combat mission over Iraq, with a pair of F/A-18F Super Hornets returning safely to base without attacking any targets. The mission came as Dutch and Belgian warplanes also joined the US-led coalition targeting Islamic State fighters who have seized territory in the country's north and west. A Belgian F-16 dropped a guided bomb on a "terrorist element", and France also announced it was increasing the number of sorties its planes would fly. Chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin said the two Australian jets were armed, but did not launch air strikes. In...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has begun using Apache AH-64 attack helicopters to strike at ISIS targets inside Iraq, the first time the aircraft have been used for offensive strikes since arriving in Baghdad in early July. Their use opens up a new capability in the airstrike campaign against ISIS in Iraq, but one that also comes with risks, as they could be vulnerable to ground fire. A defense official confirms that Apache helicopters were used this weekend as part of four airstrikes on a large ISIS force northeast of Fallujah. The attack was conducted in coordination with Air Force fighter...

Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes battled Islamic State jihadists for control of a key Syrian town Sunday and Turkey evacuated some border areas as mortar fire spilled over. IS fighters seized part of a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobane late on Saturday, a monitor said, but their progress was slowed by new strikes from the coalition of Washington and Arab allies. A Syrian Kurdish official said IS fighters were just one kilometre from Kobane and air strikes are not enough on their own to stop them. The dusty border town has become a crucial battleground in...

From a U.S. Central Command News Release WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2014 – U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria yesterday and today, using fighter aircraft to conduct three airstrikes. Separately, in Iraq U.S. military forces used helicopters and attack, bomber, and fighter aircraft to conduct six airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq. In Syria, one strike northwest of Al Mayadin destroyed an ISIL bulldozer, two ISIL tanks and destroyed another ISIL vehicle. Two strikes northwest of Ar Raqqah struck a large ISIL unit and destroyed six ISIL firing positions. To conduct these strikes, the U.S. employed fighter aircraft...

Five Dutch F-16 fighter jets has arrived in Jordan to take part in the U.S.-led military airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS), the defence minister said Friday. The Dutch aircraft will initially support Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told Parliament. The Dutch F-16s will be used to strike IS targets in Iraq and Syria

BEIRUT // Kurds battled ISIL fighters on Friday for a town along the border with Turkey, as the Turkish prime minister said his country will prevent the fall of Kobani. The Kurdish town and its surrounding have been under attack since mid-September, with militants capturing dozens of nearby villages. The assault, which has forced some 160,000 Syrians to flee, has left the Kurdish fighters scrambling to repel the militants’ advance into the outskirts of Kobani, also known as Ain Al Arab. Meanwhile, aircraft from Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined US warplanes in a new wave of bombing raids Friday...

TORONTO — Canada plans to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq following a U.S. request, a senior government official said. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to announce details later Friday.

She was in a Tornado GR4 called in to help Kurdish troops battling 30 jihadists making a last stand in a half-built medical centre. The terrorists were surrounded but refused to surrender and started launching suicide bomb attacks. Two Tornados scored direct hits with Paveway IV bombs. Some of the IS fighters survived by hiding in the basement. Brit jets were set to return for more strikes last night. Brigadier Hamid Hashem, one of the Kurdish commanders spearheading the attack on the Iraqi border town of Rabia, was shocked one of the pilots was female. He said: “The operations room...