Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Aboard a U.S. Eye in the Sky, Staring Down ISIS | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A Navy sailor maintaining a fighter jet on the deck of the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower last month. Joint Stars and other surveillance planes “paint a picture” of the Islamic State on the ground for United States fighters and bombers to attack. Credit Petr David Josek/Associated Press


ABOARD A JOINT STARS SURVEILLANCE PLANE, Over Northern Iraq — Flying at 30,000 feet, the powerful radar aboard this Air Force jet peered deep into Syrian territory, hunting for targets on the ground to strike in the looming offensive to seize Raqqa, ISIS’s capital.

It was on a mission like this several weeks ago that analysts discovered a hiding place in the central Syrian desert where ISIS was stashing scores of oil tanker trucks that provide the terrorist group with a crucial financial lifeline. Acting on that tip and other intelligence, two dozen American warplanes destroyed 188 of the trucks in the biggest airstrike of the year, eliminating an estimated $2 million in oil revenue for ISIS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Even as the American-led air campaign conducts bombing missions to support Iraqi troops fighting ISIS in Mosul, American commanders said the air war would probably play an even greater role in Syria over the coming weeks in the battle to retake Raqqa.

Newly recruited Syrian Arab militia militants , allied with experienced Kurdish militants , are encircling Raqqa. But they need allied bombing to weaken and dislodge enemy forces dug in there, and to cut off the ability for ISIS to rearm, refuel and reinforce its militants.

But with few spies in the city, American officials say assessing the enemy is difficult.

“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the situation on the ground in Raqqa,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the air war commander, said in an interview from his headquarters in Qatar. “It’s improving. It’s still not at the level we’d like it to be.”

The air operation is a pivotal component of a military campaign that has cost $12.5 million a day in Iraq and Syria. The effort has destroyed hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces, military vehicles, command centers and fighting positions, and killed more than 50,000 militants, according to American estimates. Since the air war began in late summer 2014, American and allied aircraft have conducted about 17,000 strikes in both countries.

ISIS has lost about half of the territory it seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014. But as ISIS loses ground in its physical caliphate, or religious state, the threat of hundreds of foreign militants returning home and of the expansion of its virtual caliphate through social media is certain to accelerate, American and European officials say. That raises fears of more terrorist attacks in cities outside the Middle East.

For instance, ISIS has claimed responsibility for last week’s truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin even though the links between the group and the main suspect, Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian, are not completely clear. After Mr. Amri’s death, ISIS released a video of him pledging allegiance to the group.

President Obama has vowed to deal ISIS crippling blows in Mosul and Raqqa before he leaves office. This month, he ordered 200 more American Special Operations forces to Syria to help local militants advancing on Raqqa, nearly doubling the Pentagon’s boots on the ground there. Commanders are uncertain, however, about the level of support President-elect Donald J. Trump will maintain for rebel groups in Syria combating ISIS.

The military march on Raqqa is complicated by the predominant role played by Kurdish militia members, who make up a majority of the 45,000 militants bearing down on the city. They are the most effective American partner against ISIS in Syria, providing logistics, command and control, and fierce fighting prowess. But the Kurdish militants are viewed by Turkey — a pivotal American ally — as a terrorist threat.

These lingering diplomatic and military questions leave some congressional leaders voicing skepticism about a swift, decisive attack on ISIS capital. “It’s hard to see anything is imminent,” said Representative Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

With a prewar population of about 220,000, Raqqa is about one-tenth the size of Mosul, but commanders still face the same challenges of waging an air war while minimizing risks to civilians in a congested city.

There are other reasons to go slow. Some ISIS headquarters buildings have been spared attack for now so the Americans can monitor their communications and movements of their personnel in and out to learn more about the enemy operations, General Harrigian said.

The New York Times