ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Something unusual happened in December, shortly after a Jordanian fighter pilot whose plane had crashed was captured by ISIS militants in Syria. The United Arab Emirates, an early participant in the anti-ISIS bombing campaign, told Washington it would cease air operations until the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor was deployed nearby to conduct search-and-rescue operations when pilots were downed. As Helene Cooper reported in the New York Times on February 3, “The country’s pilots will not rejoin the fight until the Ospreys, which take off and land like helicopters but fly like planes, are put in place in northern Iraq.”

The Emirates have now apparently relented in their demand, but the insistence of their government that the V-22 is specially suited to conducting combat search and rescue will be remembered — and not just because the demand threatened to unravel Washington’s carefully crafted coalition of regional partners in the campaign to take down the jihadists. The world’s first production tilt-rotor is gradually becoming a global standard for tactical flexibility, eclipsing more conventional rotorcraft that lack the speed, reach and versatility to perform diverse military missions.

This is quite a transformation for a program that defense secretary Dick Cheney spent four years trying to kill when the Cold War ended. Cheney managed to do in a hundred weapons programs – everything from the B-2 bomber to the Seawolf submarine — but he didn’t succeed in terminating the Osprey because its was steadfastly defended in each budget cycle by the Marines and a handful of dedicated Congressmen (most notably Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania). Today, that perseverance is paying off as U.S. military services and overseas allies increasingly embrace the V-22 with an enthusiasm seldom exhibited for other programs.

In January, BreakingDefense.com revealed the Navy would retire its existing fixed-wing planes for delivering time-critical supplies to aircraft carriers at sea, opting instead for the Osprey because it could fly directly to all the warships in the fleet, saving time and money. Also in January, Japan’s parliament approved a defense budget that would make that Asian ally the first foreign customer for the Osprey — a path that Israel is expected to follow too after March elections. The Emirates are also a likely customer. Past experience indicates that when these three countries want a particular U.S. weapon system, other allies will too.

(Disclosure: V-22 co-producers Bell Textron and Boeing contribute to my think tank.)

What makes the Osprey different – unique, in fact – is that it combines the speed and range of a fixed-wing turboprop with a helicopter’s ability to land anywhere. That means it is inherently more capable than either a plane or a helicopter in conducting missions such as search and rescue. Compared with the helicopters normally used for rescue missions, it can fly much farther on a single tank of fuel, and its cruising speed is a hundred miles per hour faster. So of course military leaders in the Emirates thought it was a good match for the harrowing task of retrieving downed pilots in ISIS-held territory. The Air Force used CV-22B Ospreys last year for an attempted rescue of hostages in Syria, and Marines used MV-22B Ospreys in 2011 to retrieve downed pilots in Libya.

The Marine MV-22B Osprey is the first production tilt-rotor ever. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are all buying versions of the versatile airframe. (Retrieved from Wikimedia)
The Marine MV-22B Osprey is the first production tilt-rotor ever. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are all buying versions of the versatile airframe. (Retrieved from Wikimedia)

After successful initial deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marines now use the Osprey routinely whenever Amphibious Ready Groups are dispatched to regional hot spots such as the Middle East. They say tilt-rotors have transformed expeditionary operations, multiplying the productivity of units while enabling missions that previously would not have been feasible. Air Force special operators say much the same thing, although they are somewhat more circumspect since so many of their missions are secret. As V-22s have spread across the force, operational readiness rates have gradually increased to above the Navy’s targeted 85% while costs per hour of flight have fallen — the typical profile of a successful program.

But Osprey is hardly typical: despite the danger and diversity of the missions it executes, the Marines now rate it as the safest rotorcraft in their fleet. A series of design features make it less likely than conventional helicopters to experience catastrophic accidents, and less likely to kill occupants on the rare occasions when such accidents occur. Its speed and maneuverability also contribute to the safety of passengers, enabling it to evade hostile fire more readily than other rotorcraft. And the pivoting rotors at the tips of its wings don’t just deliver speed and vertical agility — they can be pivoted over 90 degrees, permitting the airframe to fly backwards. No other aircraft in the world affords so many options for maximizing maneuverability and safety.

The Marines are currently developing a roll-on/roll-off tanking capability that will permit Osprey to refuel fighters in the air and ground vehicles at forward operating locations. After that, the next refinement likely will be the addition of lightweight missiles to the V-22′s armaments, so that troops on board do not need to rely on slower helicopter gunships for protection. The munitions most likely to be used are a precision-guided version of the Hydra rocket manufactured by BAE Systems or Raytheon’s Griffin missile. Further modifications are probable as the joint force tests the full potential of tilt-rotor technology.

Once you grasp the full functionality of the V-22 Osprey, the insistence on its in-theater deployment by Emirates leaders is not hard to understand. The Marine Corps dream of game-changing tactical flexibility has been realized, and the rest of the world has begun to take notice. It is just a matter of time before other allies get on board the program, because this is one form of tactical air power that no other aircraft can match.

Click to expand...

Fear grows in Europe as ISIS comes to Libya

As President Barack Obama angles for authorization to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, the extremist group may be seizing new territory right in Europe's backyard—which has some countries, especially Italy, nervous.

Reports surfaced of Libyan groups affiliating with the Islamic State (also called ISIS, or ISIL) in the middle of 2014, but the group did not cause much of a stir in the war-torn nation until it seized the 100,000-person city of Derna. In recent days, its Libyan branch has apparently grown more brazen, seizing a university in the coastal city of Sirte, and slaughtering 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.

Egypt responded with airstrikes against the group's Derna stronghold (and allegedly conducted special forces ground operations), but the U.S. has declined to support or condone the move.

The jihadist organization may even be spreading further across North Africa, as some reports suggest groups with allegiance to ISIS may already operate in Tunisia and Algeria.
Members of the Libyan Police are seen on their vehicles as they prepare for deployment during the start of a security plan put forth by the government to increase security, Feb. 9, 2015, in Tripoli.

To Libya's north—and across the Mediterranean—Italian officials are issuing warnings about ISIS' potential gains in the region, and reportedly briefly threatened military intervention. In the video showing the deaths of the 21 Egyptians, a militant speaking in fluent English said his group "will conquer Rome, by the will of Allah." The Christian murder victims were made to kneel in the water facing north toward Italy as they were decapitated.


Despite these pronouncements, it is not clear how many of ISIS' supposed gains in the region are real, said Kamran Bokhari, a Middle East adviser for global intelligence firm Stratfor.

"They know how to spin the media, they know how to work it: They have a bunch of people wave the flag somewhere and have people pledge allegiance to the so-called caliph via Twitter or Facebook or YouTube," he told CNBC. "Anybody can do that, but that doesn't prove that they're really gaining ground in a particular area."

According to Bokhari, the only certainty about ISIS is that it is fighting on multiple fronts just to maintain the land it has already seized in Iraq and Syria.

"In light of all of this, I just don't see how a group that is trying to sustain its territory can possibly expand to AfPak [Afghanistan and Pakistan] or Libya," Bokhari said, explaining that the terrorists in Libya seem more likely to be loosely affiliated locals.

Additionally, he said, the "jihadi market is so saturated" in the embattled North African country, that ISIS is unlikely to easily win ground. Explaining that he understood the need for governments to assume worst-case scenarios, Bokhari said that some of the comments coming from European officials is "almost paranoia."

Still, even if ISIS is not prepared to launch a navy to cross the Mediterranean into Italy, the group's position in Libya could cause some new headaches for Europe, experts said.

The largest concern will be that the North African country becomes a training ground and safe haven for ISIS-affiliated terrorists, said Christopher Chivvis, associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

European intelligence organizations are already "spread pretty thin" keeping track of possible extremists within their own borders and those coming in from Turkey, he said, so chaos in Libya is a "significant problem" for them.

Another problem with an increasingly chaotic Libya is that it's likely to even further damage oil production in the region, Chivvis said.

As for solutions, no option has a strong likelihood of easy success. Chivvis said that there could either be a likely U.S.-led military campaign in the country, a coordinated effort of backing more moderate factions or a peace agreement brokered by the international community. The latter would probably see the best results, he said, especially if it were coupled with robust counterterrorism operations and a stabilization force.

Backing any one faction would have the potential to just exacerbate the violence, because there is no single group in a good position to achieve stability on its own, Chivvis said, adding that it is unlikely the U.S. would commit the necessary forces for a successful military campaign.

Click to expand...

Franklin said:

The Islamic State (IS) is spreading outside of Syria and Iraq. Its getting a stronger foothold in Libya. This is freaking the Europeans out. So we may see another intervention in Libya Soon.



https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/ne...-and-technological-development.t4270/page-209

Click to expand...

Special Report: How Iran's military chiefs operate in Iraq
BY NED PARKER, BABAK DEHGHANPISHEH AND ISABEL COLES
BAGHDAD Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:00am EST

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

CREDIT: REUTERS/AHMED JADALLAH/FILES

(Reuters) - The face stares out from multiple billboards in central Baghdad, a grey-haired general casting a watchful eye across the Iraqi capital. This military commander is not Iraqi, though. He's Iranian.

The posters are a recent arrival, reflecting the influence

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

now wields in Baghdad.

Iraq is a mainly Arab country. Its citizens, Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims alike, have long mistrusted Iran, the Persian nation to the east. But as Baghdad struggles to fight the Sunni extremist group Islamic State, many Shi'ite Iraqis now look to Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, as their main ally.

In particular, Iraqi Shi'ites have grown to trust the powerful Iranian-backed militias that have taken charge since the Iraqi army deserted en masse last summer. Dozens of paramilitary groups have united under a secretive branch of the Iraqi government called the Popular Mobilisation Committee, or Hashid Shaabi. Created by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s predecessor Nuri al-Maliki, the official body now takes the lead role in many of Iraq's security operations. From its position at the nexus between Tehran, the Iraqi government, and the militias, it is increasingly influential in determining the country's future.

Until now, little has been known about the body. But in a series of interviews with Reuters, key Iraqi figures inside Hashid Shaabi have detailed the ways the paramilitary groups, Baghdad and Iran collaborate, and the role Iranian advisers play both inside the group and on the frontlines.

Those who spoke to Reuters include two senior figures in the Badr Organisation, perhaps the single most powerful Shi'ite paramilitary group, and the commander of a relatively new militia called Saraya al-Khorasani.

In all, Hashid Shaabi oversees and coordinates several dozen factions. The insiders say most of the groups followed a call to arms by Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But they also cite the religious guidance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, as a key factor in their decision to fight and – as they see it – defend

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organisation, told Reuters: "The majority of us believe that ... Khamenei has all the qualifications as an Islamic leader. He is the leader not only for Iranians but the Islamic nation. I believe so and I take pride in it."

He insisted there was no conflict between his role as an Iraqi political and military leader and his fealty to Khamenei.

"Khamenei would place the interests of the Iraqi people above all else," Amiri said.

...

Click to expand...

...

FROM BATTLEFIELD TO HOSPITAL

Hashid Shaabi is headed by Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a former Badr commander who once plotted against Saddam Hussein and whom American officials have accused of bombing the U.S. embassy in Kuwait in 1983.

Iraqi officials say Mohandis is the right-hand man of Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Mohandis is praised by some militia fighters as "the commander of all troops" whose "word is like a sword above all groups."

The body he heads helps coordinate everything from logistics to military operations against Islamic State. Its members say Mohandis' close friendships with both Soleimani and Amiri helps anchor the collaboration.

The men have known each other for more than 20 years, according to Muen al-Kadhimi, a Badr Organisation leader in western Baghdad. "If we look at this history," Kadhimi said, "it helped significantly in organizing the Hashid Shaabi and creating a force that achieved a victory that 250,000 (Iraqi) soldiers and 600,000 interior ministry police failed to do."

Kadhimi said the main leadership team usually consulted for three to four weeks before major military campaigns. "We look at the battle from all directions, from first determining the field ... how to distribute assignments within the Hashid Shaabi battalions, consult battalion commanders and the logistics," he said.

Soleimani, he said, "participates in the operation command center from the start of the battle to the end, and the last thing (he) does is visit the battle's wounded in the hospital."

Iraqi and Kurdish officials put the number of Iranian advisers in Iraq between 100 and several hundred - fewer than the nearly 3,000 American officers training Iraqi forces. In many ways, though, the Iranians are a far more influential force.

Iraqi officials say Tehran’s involvement is driven by its belief that Islamic State is an immediate danger to Shi'ite religious shrines not just in Iraq but also in Iran. Shrines in both nations, but especially in Iraq, rank among the sect's most sacred.

The Iranians, the Iraqi officials say, helped organize the Shi'ite volunteers and militia forces after Grand Ayatollah Sistani called on Iraqis to defend their country days after Islamic State seized control of the northern city of Mosul last June.

Prime Minister Abadi has said Iran has provided Iraqi forces and militia volunteers with weapons and ammunition from the first days of the war with Islamic State.

They have also provided troops. Several Kurdish officials said that when Islamic State fighters pushed close to the Iraq-Iran border in late summer, Iran dispatched artillery units to Iraq to fight them. Farid Asarsad, a senior official from the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, said Iranian troops often work with Iraqi forces. In northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga soldiers "dealt with the technical issues like identifying targets in battle, but the launching of rockets and artillery – the Iranians were the ones who did that."

Kadhimi, the senior Badr official, said Iranian advisers in Iraq have helped with everything from tactics to providing paramilitary groups with drone and signals capabilities, including electronic surveillance and radio communications.

"The U.S. stayed all these years with the Iraqi army and never taught them to use drones or how to operate a very sophisticated communication network, or how to intercept the enemy's communication," he said. "The Hashid Shaabi, with the help of (Iranian) advisers, now knows how to operate and manufacture drones."

A MAGICAL FIGHTER

One of the Shi'ite militia groups that best shows Iran's influence in Iraq is Saraya al-Khorasani. It was formed in 2013 in response to Khamenei's call to fight Sunni jihadists, initially in Syria and later Iraq.

The group is responsible for the Baghdad billboards that feature Iranian General Hamid Taghavi, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Known to militia members as Abu Mariam, Taghavi was killed in northern Iraq in December. He has become a hero for many of Iraq's Shi'ite fighters.

Taghavi "was an expert at guerrilla war," said Ali al-Yasiri, the commander of Saraya al-Khorasani. "People looked at him as magical."

In a video posted online by the Khorasani group soon after Taghavi's death, the Iranian general squats on the battlefield, giving orders as bullets snap overhead. Around him, young Iraqi fighters with AK-47s press themselves tightly against the ground. The general wears rumpled fatigues and has a calm, grandfatherly demeanor. Later in the video, he rallies his fighters, encouraging them to run forward to attack positions.

Within two days of Mosul's fall on June 10 last year, Taghavi, a member of Iran's minority Arab population, traveled to Iraq with members of Iran's regular military and the Revolutionary Guard. Soon, he was helping map out a way to outflank Islamic State outside Balad, 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad.

Taghavi's time with Saraya al-Khorasani proved a boon for the group. Its numbers swelled from 1,500 to 3,000. It now boasts artillery, heavy machine guns, and 23 military Humvees, many of them captured from Islamic State.

"Of course, they are good," Yasiri said with a grin. "They are American made."

In November, Taghavi was back in Iraq for a Shi'ite militia offensive near the Iranian border. Yasiri said Taghavi formulated a plan to "encircle and besiege" Islamic State in the towns of Jalawala and Saadiya. After success with that, he began to plot the next battle. Yasiri urged him to be more cautious, but Taghavi was killed by a sniper in December.

At Taghavi's funeral, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, eulogized the slain commander. He was, said Shamkhani, one of those Iranians in Iraq "defending Samarra and giving their blood so we don't have to give our blood in Tehran." Both Soleimani and the Badr Organisation's Amiri were among the mourners.

A NEW IRAQI SOUL

Saraya al-Khorasani's headquarters sit in eastern Baghdad, inside an exclusive government complex that houses ministers and members of parliament. Giant pictures of Taghavi and other slain al-Khorasani fighters hang from the exterior walls of the group's villa.

Commander Yasiri walks with a cane after he was wounded in his left leg during a battle in eastern Diyala in November. On his desk sits a small framed drawing of Iran's Khamenei.

He describes Saraya al-Khorasani, along with Badr and several other groups, as "the soul" of Iraq’s Hashid Shaabi committee.

Not everyone agrees. A senior Shi'ite official in the Iraqi government took a more critical view, saying Saraya al-Khorasani and the other militias were tools of Tehran. "They are an Iranian-made group that was established by Taghavi. Because of their close ties with Iranians for weapons and ammunition, they are so effective," the official said.

Asarsad, the senior Kurdish official, predicts Iraq's Shi'ite militias will evolve into a permanent force that resembles the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. That sectarian force, he believes, will one day operate in tandem with Iraq's regular military.

"There will be two armies in Iraq," he said.

That could have big implications for the country’s future. Human rights groups have accused the Shi’ite militias of displacing and killing Sunnis in areas they liberate — a charge the paramilitary commanders vigorously deny. The militias blame any excesses on locals and accuse Sunni politicians of spreading rumors to sully the name of Hashid Shaabi.

The senior Shi'ite official critical of Saraya al-Khorasani said the militia groups, which have the freedom to operate without directly consulting the army or the prime minister, could yet undermine Iraq's stability. The official described Badr as by far the most powerful force in the country, even stronger than Prime Minister Abadi.

Amiri, the Badr leader, rejected such claims. He said he presents his military plans directly to Abadi for approval.

His deputy Kadhimi was in no doubt, though, that the Hashid Shaabi was more powerful than the Iraqi military.

"A Hashid Shaabi (soldier) sees his commander ... or Haji Hadi Amiri or Haji Mohandis or even Haji Qassem Soleimani in the battle, eating with them, sitting with them on the ground, joking with them. This is why they are ready to fight," said Kadhimi. "This is why it is an invincible force."

(Editing By Simon Robinson and Richard Woods)

Click to expand...

Three young people from Laval and Montreal left Canada last month to join militants in Syria, according to media reports.

CBC/Radio-Canada reported that two are teenage girls who were reported missing from Laval and the third is a male from Montreal. The three are reported to be CEGEP students.

Montreal police were informed the teens were missing by their families two days after they took a plane to Turkey, according to the Rad-Can report.

A Laval police spokesperson said the files on the missing teens have been handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The RCMP would not comment, the report said.

Click to expand...

solarz said:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The fact that ISIS is able to draw recruits from all over the world shows that its message has appeal among particular segments of the world's population. In this, ISIS is more successful than al-Qaeda ever was. This is a far more insidious threat than its overt military campaigns, and it's a threat that cannot be removed with airstrikes.

Click to expand...