Militants a soft target for U.S.
Islamic State’s equipment, tactics make it vulnerable,
While the Islamic State’s heavy weapons and armor have made it a potent fighting force against Iraq’s military, the equipment also makes the militants vulnerable to U.S. airstrikes.
Unlike a ragtag force of insurgents that relies on hit-and-run tactics, the Islamic State operates more as a conventional army with tanks and Humvees, often moving through open terrain where it can easily be struck from the air.
“It inherently gives you a more visible footprint,” said Jeff White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
White cautioned that the militants do not have the organization and clear-cut structure of a regular military unit.
The United States has been flying up to 50 surveillance missions a day over Iraq in recent weeks, providing a clear picture of the militants.
Since President Obama on Thursday authorized targeted airstrikes, U.S. aircraft have hit convoys, mortars and artillery manned by the militants in northern Iraq.
The Islamic State “is no longer simply a terrorist organization. It is now a full-blown army,” said Brett McGurk, a State Department official.
Many of the group’s weapons are American-made and were seized from the Iraqi military forces, who fled Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, when the militants attacked in June.
The Islamic State also gained critical combat experience fighting alongside opposition groups waging a civil war against Syria for the past three years.
Plus, the group is well-financed. The Islamic State receives funding from donors in wealthy Persian Gulf states, and the militants have seized critical infrastructure in areas they control. Currently they are attempting to control hyrdro-electric dams in Mosul and Haditha that provide much of Baghdad’s electricity. They have also seized oil fields in Syria and Iraq.
“They are flush with resources, cash and equipment,” McGurk testified recently.
The militants also teamed up with former Iraqi army officers who bring experience in tactics and ways to use the heavy weapons. The officers are Sunnis like the militants, but don’t share the Islamic State’s extremist ideology. They do feel alienated by Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government.
The Islamic State is far different from the insurgents the U.S. faced after invading Iraq in 2003, when American troops fought al-Qaeda-linked militants equipped only with light arms.
Similarly in Afghanistan, U.S. forces have faced militants that operate in small groups without heavy equipment, allowing them to easily hide in the mountains.
Obama said the strikes he authorized last week are to defend U.S. forces in the region and to support an effort to help provide food and water to thousands of Yazidi refugees who fled the militants because of their religion.
This limited air campaign contrasts with the “shock and awe” in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, when U.S. war planes and ships unleashed massive bombings in an attempt to break dictator Saddam Hussein’s military and aid allied ground attacks.
WASHINGTON A series of U.S. airstrikes Sunday against militants in Iraq appeared to produce small but positive results, backing up President Obama’s promise of narrowly targeted attacks.
U.S. Central Command reported Sunday that pilots and drones hit specific, small assets of the Islamic State forces near Irbil, destroying several vehicles and a mortar array.
And Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights spokesman Kamil Amin told CNN that up to 20,000 Yazidi Iraqis, who have been targeted by the militants, had been rescued and taken to safety near the Syrian border. Thousands remain trapped on a mountain, scrambling for food and water dropped by U.S. airlifts.
Obama had said Saturday that he would commit no ground troops, but the airstrikes may be a prolonged campaign. “I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks,” he said.
The Obama administration is pushing for an inclusive Iraqi government capable of handling the situation itself, but on Sunday, Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki added to a leadership crisis by saying he will not resign and openly splitting with Iraq’s president.
The Associated Press reported that Brig. Gen. Shirko Fatih, a senior Kurdish military official, said his troops have gained control of two towns in northern Iraq the militants had captured. Taking Makhmour and al- Gweir back from the Islamic State marked the Kurdish forces’ first victory in the battle, which began in June when the militants seized Mosul.
“I think the initial strikes are already having some effects,” retired Army general Carter Ham told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “It seems to have at least given pause to the Islamic extremists.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “There is no policy, so there is no strategy, and therefore, things are going very, very badly.”