WASHINGTON // As US forces gear up for airstrikes in Syria, the first demonstration of president Barack Obama’s more aggressive military campaign against ISIL, the Islamist militant group that is terrorising parts of Syria and Iraq, is likely to unfold first in Iraq as early as next week, officials say.
In Syria, US planes and drones will be gathering intelligence on targets and air defence threats in preparation for airstrikes there. At the same time, a wider range of targets – perhaps including ISIL’s leaders – are expected to come under attack in Iraq.
US warplanes have launched 158 strikes in Iraq over the past five weeks while emphasising a relatively narrow set of targets. The focus has been Obama’s initial goal of defending US personnel, protecting critical infrastructure such as major dams and enabling humanitarian relief operations.
New strikes on Friday destroyed two ISIL armoured vehicles in an effort to support Iraqi troops near the Mosul Dam and in defense of Erbil, the military’s US Central Command said.
More US troops, along with additional intelligence-gathering aircraft, are expected to arrive in northern Iraq next week. That will enable an expanded surveillance effort over Syria by a range of aircraft, including Predator and Reaper drones as well as navy EA-18G electronic warfare planes that are capable of jamming air defence radars and striking ground targets.
Without citing a specific timeline, the Pentagon’s press secretary, Navy Rear Adm John Kirby, said the air campaign in Iraq, which began on August 8, will enter a new, more aggressive phase designed to exploit ISIL’s vulnerabilities, which include a lack of effective defenses against US warplanes.
“In coming days we’re going to be more aggressive and shift a focus from what has been to date primarily defensive in nature to more offensive in nature,” he said. He suggested that this will include strikes on ISIL’s leaders in Iraq.
“When you are going after a network like this, one of the things that you also want to go after is their ability to command and control and to lead their forces,” Rear Adm Kirby said.
The aim is not to destroy ISIL’s forces in Iraq by air power alone, but rather to erode their capabilities and limit their freedom of movement so that Iraqi ground forces can regain control of territory they lost in recent months.
One of the risks being weighed by Mr Obama and his military commanders as they prepare to extend the airstrikes into Syria is that country’s air defences, which have been described as formidable. They are less prominent, however, in the more desolate eastern stretches of Syria where US warplanes are likely to fly.
Rear Adm Kirby declined to discuss the air defence threat in detail.
“Generally speaking, the eastern part of the country is more desolate, more remote, less critical infrastructure there than in the western part of the country, so, generally speaking, one would assume that most of their air defence systems are based around the west and around major facilities and major cities,” he said.
But, he said, air defence systems can be moved and thus must be monitored.
“As we plan and prepare for the possibility of conducting airstrikes across that border, we’re obviously factoring in every possible contingency that we can,” he said.
The Obama administration has sought to portray the president’s strategy, as outlined in his speech on Wednesday, as more than a military campaign. It says regional and international diplomacy are equally important. And it has been careful to distinguish this effort from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Associated Press