Airstrikes Archives

Opinion: Syrian airstrikes send a clear message

April 15, 2018 by administrator

The good news is that World War III has not started. But the bad news is that nothing in Syria will be improved by Western powers’ airstrikes, writes Christian F. Trippe.

We won’t know for some time how close the world has come to the brink of war between the two nuclear superpowers, the US and Russia, in mid-April 2018. For now, it seems clear that the US, the UK and France have held back and that their attacks have been limited to targets in Syria related to the production and storage of chemical warfare agents. While it is difficult to get a clear picture of anything that is going on in Syria and caution is necessary in dealing with any reports, it seems, according to available information, that there have been practically no civilian casualties.

Military rationality?

In recent days parallels have been drawn increasingly to the Cuban missile crisis, the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the USA in 1962. Looking at the public statements being made, it seems the world has certainly reached such a point again — at least going by Donald Trump’s crazy tweets and the grandiose threats that have been made by Russian officials. But back then, it was a matter of maintaining the primacy of politics over the military generals and a Kubrickesque “Dr Strangelove” mentality on both sides. This was successful 56 years ago and the crisis remained a political one.

Now, however, in the last few days before the airstrikes on Syria, warnings were heard on both sides of the Atlantic that sometimes sounded like anxious prayers: Hopefully the rationality of the military will prevail this time. The rationality and expertise of military generals versus the ignorance and ruthlessness of politicians — you need to have a special kind of political humor to find this funny.

Careful choice of targets

Just to recap: There are currently several thousand Russian soldiers in Syria, who are fighting on the side of Assad’s troops. Two months ago, Russian mercenaries were killed following attacks by the US Air Force in northern Syria. This did not lead to a crisis. The US-led coalition against the “Islamic state” has been operating in northern Syria. This time, the air raids’ targets were selected to avoid hitting any Russian soldiers.

The dialogue between the US and Russian military leaderships seems to be stable. Experts have reported for some time that the professional and reasonably trusting exchange between high-ranking people in uniform on both sides has hardly suffered — despite the new East-West confrontation.

Syria is perhaps the most complex theater of war in history. Again and again, troops whose countries are either nominally still allied or politically deeply hostile have come into confrontation on Syrian soil. Russia’s intervention on Assad’s side and Syria’s alliance with Iran have decided the ultimate outcome of the Syrian civil war. The so-called retaliatory strikes by the three Western powers will do nothing to change this. However, this does not mean that they are pointless.

Aleppo airstrikes continue: Two reported wounded

October 3, 2016 by administrator

Syrian rebel groups continue the armed occupation of Aleppo, conducting airstrikes against the city’s Armenian districts.
Recent rocket attacks have targeted the neighborhoods Nor Kyugh, Suleymaniye and Telefon Haua, says Zarmik Chilaposhyan, the editor of the local Armenian newspaper Gandzasar.

A mother and son identified as Karlo A Fermanyan (19) and Naval Abdo have been wounded in the attacks.

No deaths are reported.

Syria: Raqqa Civilians Flee Airstrikes as Kurds, Jihadists Clash

May 25, 2016 by administrator

U.S.-led coalition warplanes carried out intense airstrikes Tuesday on Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State group, a monitoring group said, continuing days of air-raids that appear to be aimed at demoralizing jihadist fighters before an offensive by Kurdish-led forces on villages to the north of the city.

The airstrikes appear targeted mostly on IS defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. This may be to try to avoid civilian casualties, although civilian deaths have been reported.

Raqqa political activists have been warning that IS is using civilians as human shields, spreading fighters and their weaponry around civilian areas and housing militants in residential blocks.

Leaders of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-dominated coalition that also includes a mixed bag of small Sunni Arab armed groups and some Syriac and Turkmen community defense forces, announced Tuesday it had started an offensive to liberate Raqqa from the Islamic State.

Americans in combat mode?

SDF spokesmen said U.S. commandos are embedding with their fighters in the offensive and posted videos purportedly showing this. U.S. officials deny American soldiers are taking on combat roles in the fighting and insist U.S. Special Forces won’t be exchanging fire with IS.

Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led international coalition against IS, says U.S. Special Forces personnel are only providing assistance and advice to the SDF in the battle, but they are not on the front line. “We are in their off centers and headquarters providing advice,” he said.

U.S. officials, and some Kurdish officials, are also cautioning the objective of the military operation is to seize villages and territory north and west of Raqqa rather than to seek to retake the beleaguered city. The objective, they say, is to squeeze the city and further isolate it.

Civilians urged to leave

Some Western officials concede the SDF doesn’t have the capability yet to mount a full-scale assault on the city. That has prompted political activists to question why the international coalition has been air-dropping leaflets in the past few days on Raqqa urging civilians to flee the city, implying that an assault is in the offing.

Civilians flee to countryside

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group that relies on a network of activists inside Syria, reported Wednesday sharp clashes between SDF and IS forces around villages close to Ain Issa, 56 kilometers north of Raqqa. The monitoring group also said dozens of civilians left Raqqa city Wednesday and headed into the western countryside.

Meanwhile, Turkish military officials have warned their U.S. counterparts that Turkey will not accept American-backed Kurdish-led forces crossing the Euphrates River to mount assaults on two other IS-held towns, Manbij and Jarabulus.

Reports recently suggested the Turks may have been reducing their objections to Kurdish-led forces moving west of the Euphrates, but in a meeting with General Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, deputy chief of the Turkish general staff Yaşar Güler warned Turkey still considers the Azaz-Jarablus line as a “red line” when it comes to the Kurdish-led forces.

Syria-Update: Russian airstrikes destroy 472 terrorist targets in Syria in 48 hours, 1,000 oil tankers in 5 days

November 23, 2015 by administrator

Russian airstrikes have torched more than 1,000 tankers taking stolen crude oil to Islamic State refineries. This blow against the jihadists comes as the Russian Air Force has hit 472 terrorist targets in two days in Syria, making 141 sorties.

All Russian aircraft have successfully returned to the Khmeimim airbase near Latakia, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said in a daily briefing.

n the last two days, Russian warplanes have been conducting active supplemental reconnaissance, inflicting pinpoint airstrikes on newly exposed targets, he added.

Russian bombers taking off from the Khmeimim airbase flew on combat missions to destroy tanker convoys and oil refineries in the areas of oilfields in the north and east of Syria,” Konashenkov said. “A major oil depot was destroyed 15 kilometers southwest of the city of Raqqa.”

Russian airplanes have destroyed over 1,000 ISIS tankers with crude oil in the last five days, Konashenkov added. Sukhoi Su-34 bombers also hit a terrorist-controlled oil refinery some 50 kilometers south of Raqqa, the unrecognized capital of the Islamic State terrorists.

Russia began counterterrorist operation in Syria on September 30, after Moscow received an official request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. Initially, the military operation was conducted by a task force of more than 50 aircraft and helicopters, including the Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M bombers, Su-25 attack aircraft, Su-30SM fighters and Mil Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters. Last week, a decision was made to bolster the strike group with 37 new planes, including long-range aircraft carrying out sorties from Russian airfields.

Syria-Update: Russian Airstrikes Disrupt ISIL Supply Chains, Ammunition “lacking food and water”

October 26, 2015 by administrator

According to various information sources, terrorists are lacking food and water as result of the recent military operation, which destroyed most of their supplies.
The airstrikes affected basic food supply chains of the fighters, ammunition and medical supplies, RIA Novosti reported, citing representative of Syria’s military intelligence.

According to him, militants are experiencing serious difficulties with food and drinking water. In some terrorist units, the food will run out in less than a week, the source said.
He quoted imprisoned terrorists who reported that a “critical” situation for ISIL “has evolved with the medicines necessary to treat the wounded and injured fighters.”
“The shortage of medicines and medical supplies forced the militants to leave the wounded to the care of the local people. Moreover, in order to hide from the Russian aviation, fighters had to get rid of large trucks with material supplies, which slowed down the retreat of the forces,” he added.

Source: sputniknews.com

‘Relentless’ Russian Airstrikes Caught Terrified ISIL Off Guard – Source

October 6, 2015 by administrator

A recent series of airstrikes launched by Russian air forces against the Islamic State in Syria caused the ISIL militants to evacuate their checkpoints in Raqqa and to cancel all public events there.
A source in the Islamic State’s so-called ‘capital’ told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that Russian airstrikes have caused widespread panic among the Islamist militants who apparently were not expecting such a relentless assault.
“They thought that Russian warplanes would act like their American counterparts – that they would launch some sporadic surgical strikes at dusk and then they would fly away,” the source said. “Instead, Russian military aircraft constantly bombard ISIS positions in the vicinity of Raqqa, and these massed strikes have completely paralyzed the Islamist group’s activities. The Russian air operation proved to be extremely effective.”
The source added that Russian military aircraft engage any ISIL forces they encounter, and that the militants were forced to evacuate the checkpoints they previously maintained in and around Raqqa.
“The militants now have to wear burqas to conceal their weapons and ISIL command also ordered them not to move in large formations,” the source added.
The Islamic State leadership also cancelled collective prayers that were previously held by the terrorist group members on the city streets. According to the source, weddings and public punishments are also no longer held in the city’s squares.
“Previously, when one of the city residents was caught stealing or smoking or committing some other transgression, he or she was brought to the central square where the Sharia court was held to be publically punished. Now these activities were are no longer conducted due to safety concerns,” source said.

Source: sputniknews.com

Breaking News: Russian pilots launch their first airstrikes in Syria, U.S. officials say

September 30, 2015 by administrator

Wednesday, September 30, 2015 8:37 AM EDT report nytime
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia escalated the stakes in his contest with the West over influence in the Middle East on Wednesday, as Russian pilots carried out their first airstrikes in Syria.
Russian warplanes dropped bombs near the central city of Homs, according to American officials in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make a public statement. Moscow informed American officials in advance, they said.
The attack came hours after Mr. Putin pushed a measure through the upper house of Parliament approving the use of Russian military forces abroad.
Russian officials and analysts portrayed the move as an attempt both to fight Islamic State militants and to try to ensure the survival of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia’s main ally in the Middle East. But Russian intervention would most likely prolong and complicate the war, as it would keep Mr. Assad in office and would add Russian forces to the already complicated patchwork of forces deployed there.
Sergei B. Ivanov, Mr. Putin’s chief of staff, appealed to the upper house, the Federation Council, for the measure, describing it as an open-ended deployment of the Russian Air Force to support Mr. Assad — at his request — in his fight against the Islamic State.

PKK condemns Turkey’s military airstrikes against its fighters

October 14, 2014 by administrator

Members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party

Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has condemned Turkish military airstrikes against its fighters in the southeast of the country as violation of a ceasefire with the government.

The PKK issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the Turkish military airstrikes on its fighters violate a ceasefire agreed between the two sides two years ago.

“For the first time in nearly two years, an air operation was carried out against our forces by the occupying Turkish Republic army,” the PKK said in the statement, adding, “These attacks against two guerrilla bases at Daglica violated the cease-fire.”

The group added that the raids have not caused casualties among its members.

Turkish media reported earlier in the day that the military launched airstrikes on two PKK bases in the Daglica area in Hakkari Province close to the Iraqi border.

“F-16 and F-4 warplanes which took off from (bases in the southeastern provinces of) Diyarbakir and Malatya rained down bombs on PKK targets after they attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region,” Hurriyet daily said.

The strikes reportedly followed three days of PKK shelling on a military outpost in the Kurdish-majority province near the Iraqi border.

Ankara launched a peace process with the PKK in 2012 to end the Kurdish struggle for independence.

The PKK declared a ceasefire with Turkey last March after the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered an end to the armed campaign for autonomy.

The attacks come as Kurds in Turkey are angry at the government for preventing them from crossing into neighboring Syria to join the fight against ISIL terrorists in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

Ankara also refuses to intervene along its border with Syria where ISIL militants have besieged the mainly Kurdish town.

According to reports, the Takfiri militants have taken half of the Syrian city.

US confirms airstrikes near Mosul dam and Irbil

August 17, 2014 by administrator

The US military has confirmed that it carried out airstrikes against “Islamic State” targets near the Kurdish capital, Irbil, and Iraq’s largest dam. Officials said the strikes were in US and humanitarian interests.

The Pentagon confirmed that the US military had used a combination of drones and piloted aircraft to conduct strikes against the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group.

US Central Command said on Saturday that nine airstrikes had been conducted, with armored personnel carriers and other vehicles either destroyed or damaged. It said the strikes were carried out to support humanitarian efforts and protect US interests.

At least 20 militants were killed in the air strikes near the dam, the Kurdish military said, with warplanes targeting gatherings of insurgents along the facility.

A Kurdish official told the AFP news agency on Saturday that Peshmerga fighters, with the help of US air support, had retaken control of the eastern side of the dam complex.

“All aircraft exited the strike areas safely,” Central Command said. There were no significant details about the operations near Irbil.

Fears dam could become weapon

IS fighters captured Mosul Dam, which is on the Tigris River and is Iraq’s largest dam, earlier this month. The dam on, on the southern shores of Lake Mosul, lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city and provides electricity to much of the region, as well as being crucial to irrigation in Nineveh province.

There are fears that fighters might – if desperate – use the damn as a weapon by threatening flooding as far as the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. However, with Mosul under IS control, such a move would at present prove counterproductive.

In recent weeks, the militants have overrun several towns where minority Christians and Yezidis live, triggering an exodus. Others, living in besieged towns and unable to move, have been ordered to convert to Islam or die.

Iraqi and Kurdish officials claim that in a massacre in the small town of Kocho alone, 80 men were shot by militants, with women and children being abducted. Yazidis living nearby claim the number was higher, and that the same atrocities have been carried out in other villages.

Across the border in Syria, the militants are alleged to have killed some 700 people belonging to a local tribe in the past two weeks. Members of the Shueitat tribe were branded as infidels after refusing to accept IS rule, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

rc/av (AP, AFP, Reuters)

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U.S. jet fighters carry out second round of airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq

August 8, 2014 by administrator

The U.S. military has begun a second round of airstrikes against ISIS near Irbil, U.S. officials told CNN on Friday.

News of the latest airstrikes came just after the governor of Irbil, Nawzad Hadi, told CNN, that ISIS fighters may be as close as 30 kilometers to Irbil. Air strikes are “very important” because ISIS fighters are well armed and are outgunning the Kurdish forces, thanks to the weapons the militants seized from the Iraqi military in Mosul, Hadi said.

During that second airstrike, four U.S. fighter jets struck an ISIS convoy of seven vehicles, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The warplanes dropped four laser-guided bombs, he said.

[Original story published at 2:49 p.m.]

U.S. jet fighters strike ISIS in Iraq

Two U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters bombed artillery of Sunni Islamic extremists in Iraq on Friday, escalating America’s military involvement more than two years after President Barack Obama brought home forces from the country.

Obama on Thursday authorized “targeted airstrikes” if needed to protect U.S. personnel from fighters with ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. The U.S. military also could use airstrikes to prevent what officials warn could be a genocide of minority groups by the ISIS fighters.

Though the United States is supporting Iraq militarily, there won’t be U.S. combat troops on the ground, and it ultimately will be up to the Iraqi government and security forces to resolve the ISIS threat, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.

“There will not be American troops returning to Iraq in a combat role,” he said, repeating what Obama said in an address Thursday night.

“As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,” the President said.

Meanwhile, a senior Kurdish official told CNN that ISIS militants captured Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam, just north of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. According to the official, the militant fighters have been using U.S.-made weapons seized from the Iraqi army, including M1 Abrams tanks.

There had been conflicting reports about who controlled the dam on the Tigris River, with heavy fighting under way between ISIS fighters and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga. U.S. officials have warned that a failure of the dam would catastrophic, resulting in flooding all the way to Baghdad.

In other fighting, an Iraqi airstrike killed 45 ISIS fighters and injured 60 Friday in the northern town of Sinjar, the country’s state-run National Media Center said.

Sinjar is the town that ISIS raided last weekend, causing members of the Yazidi minority there to flee into surrounding mountains without food, water or shelter and prompting concerns of a potential genocide. The Yazidis are of Kurdish descent, and their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

U.S. flights prohibited

Other signs of a growing regional conflict: The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice prohibiting U.S. airlines from flying through Iraqi airspace “due to the hazardous situation created by the armed conflict.”

The developments showed that the lightning advance by ISIS fighters across northern Iraq this year has become a battle for the nation’s future and overall stability in a part of the world wracked for decades by periodic war.

French President François Hollande strongly condemned ISIS attacks against the Iraqi population and vulnerable minorities such as Yazidis and Christians and called for the international community to respond.

“France is ready to take its part,” Hollande said in a statement from his office that called for the European Union “to take an active role very quickly” and put in place all the necessary assistance to respond to the crisis.

U.S. warplanes patrolling the skies over northern Iraq have a “green light” to go after perceived ISIS threats to the Kurdish capital, Irbil, or to minority populations, said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.

Airstrikes are also possible to help Kurdish forces end the siege by ISIS in the northern Iraqi mountains, where tens of thousands of Yazidis have sought refuge, Earnest, the White House spokesman, said Friday.

ISIS fighters have surrounded the Yazidis on the ground below.

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