Tensions rise as Tories set to update on Canada’s ISIL mission
Group changed tactics in response to bombing by dispersing its fighters
Canadian CF-18 pilots, now preparing for a potential mission against Islamist extremists in Iraq, could soon be facing another foe — a lack of targets to bomb.
Leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have changed their tactics in the wake of the U.S.-led bombing campaign, by dispersing their forces and having them work in smaller units.
U.S. aircraft have been attacking ISIL since August at various locations in Iraq but recently expanded to include strikes on the group in Syria.
Aircraft from France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar have also taken part in attacks. Iran, in conjunction with Iraqi forces, is conducting its own air campaign against the Islamist extremists.
But ISIL has reacted to the aerial onslaught by reducing its profile on the ground. With the group’s various headquarters bombed and oil refineries that it had seized now destroyed, air forces are having to turn their attention to smaller targets.
On Tuesday, Royal Air Force jets attacked a mortar crew and a truck. On Wednesday Royal Air Force fighter jets destroyed two trucks. Some of the RAF pilots returned to their base in Cyprus without finding anything to attack.
Defence analyst Martin Shadwick said CF-18 pilots will find a different situation in Iraq than the one they faced during the 2011 bombing campaign against the regime of Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
“The dynamics are somewhat different,” explained Shadwick, a strategic studies professor at York University in Toronto. “Some of the targets in Libya were static, such as Gadhafi’s infrastructure. ISIL is all over the place and proving troublesome.”
Shadwick said that mobility makes the group “adaptive, which makes them much more dangerous.”
The U.S. has conducted more than 240 airstrikes against ISIL forces in Iraq and Syria.
Maj.- Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the U.S. air force’s assistant chief of staff for operations, said ISIL quickly changed tactics to take into account the bombing campaign.
“Instead of the columns of vehicles that you had previously seen with flags over the top ... they are a smart adversary,” Harrigian told the U.S. publication Air Force Times.
“They have seen that that is not effective for their survival. So they are now dispersing themselves to allow themselves situations to be more survivable, if you will, which requires us to work harder to locate them and develop the situation to appropriately target them.”
But Harrigian pointed out that the bombing has prevented ISIL from amassing on a large scale, and threatening Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
The air attacks on oil refineries controlled by ISIL are also putting a dent in the group’s finances by cutting off the flow and sale of oil, he noted.
The Conservative government is expected to announce Friday what Canada will contribute to coalition efforts against ISIL. Among the options are CF-18 fighter jets, aerial tankers to conduct mid-air refuelling of warplanes, transport planes and CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft.
The Aurora, a long-range patrol aircraft used mainly for maritime surveillance, could be capable of contributing to what Harrigian noted would be an increase in efforts to locate ISIL targets.
During the Libya war, the Royal Canadian Air Force used the planes to seek out ground targets.
“We brought Canadian forward air controllers that had been trained and experienced in Afghanistan, put them on board the Aurora, and the next thing you know they were controlling jets and conducting airstrikes,” explained Brig.- Gen. Derek Joyce in 2011.
Besides directing airstrikes, the surveillance equipment on board the Auroras was used to provide assessments of how much damage the airstrikes inflicted on Libyan forces.