Islamic State attack on Iraqi base leaves hundreds missing, shows army weaknesses

[superbeets]

BAGHDAD — The army base in Iraq’s western Anbar province had been under siege by Islamic State militants for a week, so when a convoy of armored Humvees rolled up at the gate, the Iraqi soldiers at Camp Saqlawiyah believed saviors had arrived.
But this was no rescue attempt. The vehicles were driven by militants on suicide missions, and within seconds on Sunday the base had become a bloody scene of multiple bombings.
On Monday, a day after the attack, five survivors — including three officers — said that between 300 and 500 soldiers were missing and believed to be dead, kidnapped or in hiding. Army officials said the numbers were far lower, leading to accusations that they were concealing the true toll.
If the survivors’ accounts are correct, it would make Sunday the most disastrous day for the Iraqi army since several divisions collapsed in the wake of the Islamic State’s capture of the northern city of Mosul amid its cross-country sweep in June.
In any case, the chaotic incident has highlighted shortcomings in an army that the United States has spent billions of dollars training and equipping, and it has further undermined the force’s reliability as a partner as President Obama expands airstrikes into provinces including Anbar.

 

[superbeets]

It has also heightened pressure on new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose opponents have already seized on the incident to accuse him of a soft-handed approach to terrorists.
While U.S. aircraft have carried out strikes in support of Iraqi forces in other recent clashes, there was no indication that any American airstrikes were made against these Islamic State attackers, other than unconfirmed reports from Iraqi officials. Accounts released Sunday and Monday by U.S. Central Command made no mention of the overrun Iraqi base.
The lead-up to Sunday’s crisis began a week ago, when the last road to Camp Saqlawiyah, just north of insurgent-controlled Fallujah, was cut by Islamic State militants. One of two tanks that were among the vehicles guarding the road left to refuel, and the militants took the opportunity to attack those that remained, said a 9th Division soldier who was present and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
The fall of the units protecting the supply route meant that the five battalions inside the base were completely besieged.
“There were no reinforcements, no food supplies, no medicine, no water, and then our ammunition began to run out,” said 1st Lt. Haider Majid, 28. “We called our leaders so many times. We called our commanders, we called members of parliament, but they just left us there to die.”
Soldiers said they sought help from Lt. Gen. Rashid Fleih, the head of Anbar Military Command. He told Iraq’s al-Sumaria news on Monday that the troops on the base were just complaining because they were trapped and “bored.”
Fleih said the army had delivered supplies while the base was under siege. But soldiers maintained that they received nothing, and thirst eventually forced them to dig a hole to dirty, salty water.

 

[superbeets]

“Even if it was dangerous for helicopters, it was their duty to try to help us,” Majid said.
Survivors said they faced daily attacks during the week, including one using chlorine gas, a claim that was impossible to verify Monday. While some said colleagues had suffocated in the attack, Col. Ihab Hashem, the deputy commander of an 8th Division battalion, said canisters had fallen short of the base.

 

[superbeets]

Attackers in disguise
The major assault came Sunday. Soldiers interviewed said army commanders had sent word via walkie-talkie that a rescue mission was on its way and had taken control of a nearby bridge.
Shortly afterward, Iraqi army armored vehicles and military trucks arrived, and the men inside were dressed in the uniforms of Iraqi counterterrorism forces, the surviving soldiers said.
“We thought this was the support we were promised was on the way,” said Capt. Ahmed Hussein of the 8th Division. “The first three Humvees were ahead of the rest with some military trucks. We just let them in.”
One Humvee exploded in the middle of the camp. The two others drove to the perimeter and detonated. The rest of the Islamic State convoy was held back at the entrance, where the survivors said the militants carried out several more suicide bombings as they tried to break in.
“I gathered my soldiers and said: ‘We are going to die anyway. Let’s try to get out,’ ” Hussein said, adding that he and about 400 other soldiers escaped under heavy fire in a convoy. Others were left behind.
Those who got away divided into three groups, eventually leaving their vehicles after some were hit by roadside bombs. They continued on foot, traversing nearly two miles of territory held by the Islamic State until they reached Camp Tariq, about four miles away.
“I was in the first group; there were about 150 soldiers in each,” Hussein said. “Only about half of each group made it.”
The rescue mission that the soldiers had been told was coming “100 percent failed,” he said. On the bridge that they were told had been secured, they found the remnants of that mission: burned army vehicles.
“No one knows how many people died,” said the 9th Division soldier, who spent days stranded in a house with 60 other soldiers. “We kept moving and never looked behind. Those who died, died. Those who were captured, were captured. We just ran for our lives.”
Hussein estimated that 250 soldiers died at Camp Saqlawiyah, and 100 to 150 are missing. Hashem put the number of dead and missing at 400 to 500.
But there were hopes that some might still make it back. A group of 13 has been in contact, according to Hashem, to say they are hiding in marshlands, another 13 in a grove of trees. He advised them to wait until the cover of night to try to make the rest of the journey.

 

[superbeets]

Government’s response
The Iraqi Defense Ministry acknowledged Sunday that it had lost contact with some of its soldiers during the incident but did not say how many were missing. Fleih said that it was possible to “count them on one hand.”
“It looks like the Defense Ministry is trying to push the numbers down,” said Mithal al-Alusi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s defense and security committee. “If we have lost people or not, this proves military structure and military strategy is not able to fight ISIS,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
He added: “Mosul they said was a surprise — what’s the excuse this time?”
Abadi, who also holds the position of commander in chief of the armed forces, issued a statement Monday saying army commanders would be interrogated on charges of negligence. The statement said the prime minister had ordered supplies to be delivered to the stranded soldiers four days ago.
For some soldiers, the incident was the latest — and last — in a series of humiliations. Hussein, for his part, said he would leave the army to join a Shiite militia.
“We don’t have any leadership,” he said. But for the militias, “their leadership is with them in the field; they look after their soldiers.”

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Obama Bans Landmine Use Against Military Leaders’ Advice[/h]Administration begins destroying stockpiles despite warnings
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South Korean Army soldiers search for landmines / AP​

BY: Adam Kredo
September 25, 2014 2:15 pm
The Obama administration has banned the U.S. military from using anti-personnel landmines in a unilateral decision that goes against warnings from top military leaders and many in Congress.
The administration stated in a series of announcements this week that landmines will no longer be used and that the Defense Department would begin destroying stockpiles of the devices, which have historically been used to protect U.S. forces from enemies in warzones.
The controversial executive decision, which comes as America steps up strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), has been in the works for some time despite protests from top U.S. military leaders, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The United States will not use anti-personnel landmines,” President Obama announced this week in New York City.
“So we will begin destroying our stockpiles not required for the defense of South Korea,” a military zone that the administration says poses unique challenges, according to Obama. “And we’re going to continue to work to find ways that would allow us to ultimately comply fully and accede to the Ottawa Convention,” a treaty banning landmines that the United States has not actually signed.
Obama’s announcement was criticized by leading lawmakers, who warned that the decision is not backed by U.S. military commanders who view the use of landmines as a key tool in the protection of American forces.
“It’s disappointing to see that, once again, the White House has overruled the advice of our military commanders,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R., Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), said in a statement.
“With the security situation around the world deteriorating, the last thing we should be doing is a unilateral jettisoning of sound defensive options,” McKeon said. “We’re all in this together, and we all share the risk when the best advice of our best military experts is ignored.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has advised the administration against the decision and referred to these landmines as “an important tool.”
“I have rendered my military advice that I consider land mines, especially the ones that we have … to be an important tool in the arsenal of the Armed Forces of the United States,” Dempsey told Congress earlier this year.
Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, also explained the need for landmines when asked by Congress earlier this year.
“I have provided my best military advice on the issue as well. And it is my assessment that landmines are a critical element in the defense of the Republic of Korea and our interest there,” Scaparrotti said. “And they are a critical element of our contingency plans, as well.”
While the United States will continue to employ the devices in the Korean Peninsula, “where our actions are governed by the unique situation there,” the Defense Department “will no longer produce or acquire anti-personnel landmines,” State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said in a statement this week.
The “announcement also means that we will not assist, encourage, or induce others to use, stockpile, produce, or transfer anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula,” Psaki said. “And we will diligently undertake to destroy stockpiles of these landmines that are not required for the defense of the Republic of Korea.”
The administration first announced in June, again against the advice of military leaders, that it would not longer procure landmines in an effort to accede to the Ottawa Convention, despite not being a signatory of the treaty.
A White House National Security Council (NSC) official told the Washington Free Beacon at the time that the situation in Korea “presents unique challenges.”
“We are diligently pursuing other solutions which would be compliant with the convention and that would ultimately allow us to accede to the convention,” the official explained in June. “Any changes to our landmine policy with respect to the Korean Peninsula would be made only after close consultation with our South Korean ally. The United States remains unwavering in our commitment to the defense of South Korea.”
When asked about comments from some military leaders opposing the landmine ban, the NSC official maintained that the “president’s senior national security team, including DOD’s civilian and military leadership, have been and continue to be deeply involved in this process and fully support the step to ban future production and acquisition of” these devices.
The Defense Department confirmed that it will now “undertake steps to begin the destruction of APLs not required for the defense of South Korea,” according to Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.

 

[russ1945]

[h=1]TOP TWO WEAPONS IN US CAMPAIGN AGAINST ISIS BOTH CANCELLED BY OBAMA[/h]

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by THOMAS ROSE 25 Sep 2014 116POST A COMMENT

[h=2]Fortunately for President Obama, the world he described Wednesday as being "at a crossroads between war and peace” started its descent into chaos before the full effect of his dramatic cuts to American defenses could be implemented.[/h]A fact not loss on administration critics and military planners is that at least two key weapons programs cancelled by President Obama to much fanfare have proven central, even vital, to the American-led campaign to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State and other terror targets inside Syria.
The first night’s assault wave against terror targets in Syria included the firing of at least 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the state-of-the-art Aegis class guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh; part of the George H.W. Bush carrier task force.
It was just last March that President Obama ordered the Defense Department to phase out new purchases of Tomahawk cruise missiles, forcing the Navy to relying upon only an ever-dwindling inventory, until the program ceases completely in 2016.
In the first night alone of air operations against Syrian based terror targets, the Pentagon fired off nearly half the number of missiles its pared back purchase program permits for all of next year. If deployed at that rate continuously, the US stockpile of roughly 4,000 Tomahawks would be depleted in less than three months.
Obama’s cancellation of the cruise missile program baffles defense analysts; given the Administration’s 2012 decision to dramatically shrink the size of U.S. Armed Forces to well below that required to “conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations.” The less capable the US military is to deal with multiple simultaneous and transglobal crisis, goes the accepted thinking of top brass, the more reliant need so-called “stand-off weapons” like the unmanned ship-fired Tomahawk cruise missile that can reach targets thousands of miles away, to make up for the gap in conventional forces.
Obama’s Tomahawk decision infuriated top officials in the British Royal Navy, whose submarine attack force relies solely upon Tomahawk missiles as their ordnance of choice, and who were not even consulted about the decision before it was announced.
Perhaps more significant than the cruise missile, Obama’s decision to launch air assaults against Syrian-based terror targets necessitated the first use ever of the Air Force’s vaunted F-22 Raptor in combat conditions. The F-22 is the most capable fighter aircraft ever developed. Its speed, maneuverability, command and control systems and its state of the art radar evasion capabilities made it the perfect delivery system to hit targets in Syria.
Calling the program “an inexcusable waste of money”, Obama promised to cancel the F-22 program during his 2008 campaign for President and made good on that promise as part of his 2010 budget. Only 187 of the front line aircraft were produced and, until Monday, the plane had never been in combat. So contemptuous was the President of the F-22 that the White House refused to permit the President even to be photographed with one when visiting Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska in 2009. The White House forced base personnel to remove the F-22 out of its permanent hangar where the President was scheduled to deliver a speech lest it be seen in the background. The F-22 was ordered removed and replaced by an older, less capable and presumably less provocative F-15.
If allowed to be fully implemented, Obama’s defense cuts will result in the smallest US army since 1940, the smallest US Navy since before World War I, and the smallest force of tactical fighter planes ever in the history of the US Air Force.

 

[SheriffJoe]

TOP TWO WEAPONS IN US CAMPAIGN AGAINST ISIS BOTH CANCELLED BY OBAMA

by THOMAS ROSE 25 Sep 2014 116POST A COMMENT

The next president has their work cut out for them.

 

[superbeets]

A Royal Navy hunter-killer nuclear submarine carrying Tomahawks is already in place in the region awaiting targets for attack




Britain has bought 20 Tomahawk missiles from the US in preparation for its bombing campaign against Islamic State.

The submarines loiter offshore before going to depth to fire the Tomahawks which can cover more than 850 miles, can be retargeted in flight and can loiter above a target for more than two hours.

 

[superbeets]

RAF Tornados will fly the first UK missions aiming to ‘decapitate’ IS commanders, convoys of jihadists fighters and control bunkers during initial air operations over Iraq.

Special forces troops have been in the region identifying potential targets for weeks and will be asked to identify any areas where civilians are being used as human shields
There are fears that IS will try to engineer large civilian casualities for propaganda purposes. More than 3,000 Yazidi women and hundreds of civilians are being held in Syria and Iraq by the group.
The RAF will operate over areas including Baghdad, the giant dams at Mosul and Haditha, the Sinjar mountains, the IS stronghold of Mosul and the cities of Irbil and Kirkuk.

The UK’s air war will be run from a bunker on the giant al-Udeid airbase in Qatar and linked directly to US Central Command. Targets will be chosen from a list drawn-up by the US military but it is likely the UK jets will also be used to survey the ground for mobile IS units before being instructed to strike.
Special Forces units known as Smash teams have carried out reconnaissance to provide up-to-date information on the jihadistss.
In some attacks, they will use a process called ‘painting a target’ to pinpoint a site to be struck. A laser beam from a portable device is bounced off a building or military installation from a few hundred yards – this is detected by the aircraft or a missile sensor, which then deploys the weapon.
The Tornados, veterans of both Gulf Wars and Afghanistan, will be armed with Paveway bombs to target small compounds, Storm Shadow bunker busters and supersonic Brimstone missiles that can hit moving targets such as people in cars or on motorbikes.

 

[SheriffJoe]

US Syria Airstrikes 'Ineffective' Against ISIS

Kurdish forces say US bombing 'empty buildings', failing to slow Islamic State advance on Kobane.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185520#.VCcpC_ldV8E

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