Return of shock and awe
16 years on from Iraq War, US blitzes IS island hideout
‘Disrupt their ability to hide’
BOMBS rain down in scenes reminiscent of the ‘shock and awe’ tactics used at the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
This dawn raid on Tuesday saw US jets flatten an island 180 miles north of Baghdad used as a base by remnants of the defeated Islamic State group.
An F-15 Strike Eagle and F-35A Lightning II, accompanied by Iraqi aircraft, dropped more than 36 tons of laser-guided bombs on jihadi militants, lighting up the one-anda-half-mile length of Qanus Island in the Tigris river.
Video of the carpet-bombing, on the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US, was posted to Twitter by the Combined Joint Task Force – a coalition of more than a dozen nations, including Britain, which is fighting IS.
It shows explosions mushrooming across the landscape. Flames shot 100ft into the sky as the jihadi hideout, said to be a major transit hub, was destroyed. Other footage from after the air raid shows two boats filled with Iraqi special forces moving in to round up any survivors. Authorities said they carpetbombed the seemingly uninhabited island to ‘disrupt Daesh the ability to hide in the thick vegetation’.
Referring to IS by their Arabic name, Daesh, Colonel Myles B Caggins from the task force tweeted: ‘Here’s what it looks like when US Air Force F-15 and F-35 jets drop 36,000kg [80,000lb] of bombs on a Daesh-infested island.’
IS captured large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a caliphate. But they were beaten back by coalition and Syrian forces.
But army commanders fear those that escaped are building a new insurgency. According to a special report submitted to the UN last Ready: An F-35 refuels in mid-air month, IS still commands around 30,000 fighters and a war-chest of some £250million.
Major General Eric Hill, commander of the coalition’s special forces said in a statement: ‘ We’re denying Daesh the ability to hide on Qanus Island.’
Hours after the bombing raid, a rocket exploded at the US embassy in Afghanistan – at the start of the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. A plume of smoke rose over central Kabul but no injuries were reported.
Later President Donald Trump joined the military in observing a brief silence at the Pentagon in Washington to mark the moment on September 11, 2001, that a hijacked jet crashed into the defence HQ, killing 184 people.
Nearly 3,000 more died when two jets crashed into New York’s World Trade Centre, while a fourth plane seized by Al Qaeda terrorists crashed in a field in Pennsylvania en route to Washington.
Mr Trump told families: ‘ This is your anniversary of personal and permanent loss’, adding their ‘loved ones will never ever be forgotten’.
Thousands attended a ceremony of remembrance at Ground Zero in New York, where the names of the victims of 9/11 were read out by family and friends.