U.S. Is Carrying Out Vast Majority of Strikes on ISIS, Military Officials Say
By HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
The New York Times
A Tomahawk cruise missile launched at an Islamic State target in Syria. CreditEric Garst/U.S. Navy, via Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The vast majority of airstrikes launched against Sunni militant targets in Syria have been carried out by American war planes and ship-based Tomahawk cruise missiles, military officials said Tuesday, in what they described as the successful beginning of a long campaign to degrade and destroy the Islamic State.
In disclosing the identities of the five Sunni Arab nations that joined or supported the attacks in Syria — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar — the Obama administration sought to paint a picture of an international coalition resolute in its determination to take on the Sunni militant group.
Jordan said that “a number of Royal Jordanian Air Force fighters destroyed” several targets but did not specify where; the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the air force “launched its first strikes against ISIL targets” on Monday evening, using another acronym for the Islamic State. American officials said that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also took active part in the strikes, and that Qatar played a “supporting” role.
But Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., the director of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the majority of strikes were carried out by American warplanes and cruise missiles, with the aim of hindering the ability of the Islamic State to cross the border into Iraq and attack Iraqi forces.
“What we have been doing over these last couple of weeks and what last night’s campaign was about was simply buying them some space so that they can get on the offensive,” General Mayville said.
Military officials said that the airstrikes began at midnight Monday local time with the launching of some 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the guided missile destroyer Arleigh Burke at positions held in Aleppo by a Qaeda-linked network known as Khorasan and at Islamic State targets around the group’s headquarters in Raqqa.
That first stage of the attack was conducted solely by the United States. The second stage began soon afterward, with American warplanes joined by fighters and bombers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan, targeting Islamic State compounds, barracks and vehicles in northern Syria.
A third wave, which also included the Arab nations, targeted Islamic State positions in eastern Syria, Pentagon officials said. A senior military official said that during the three waves of Syria strikes, the United States and its Arab allies dropped almost as many bombs in one night as the United States had used during all of its operations in Iraq against the Islamic State.
At a briefing for reporters, military officials showed photographs and video of before and after shots of the targets hit in Syria. In one case, the military bombed what officials said was an Islamic State finance center in Raqqa, targeting and destroying electronic and communications equipment on the roof, while leaving the rest of the building intact.
In another instance, American F-22 fighters targeted an Islamic State command and control building, hitting the right side of the structure, which officials said the Sunni militants were using for communications, storing weapons and holding meetings, while leaving the rest of the building intact.
General Mayville told reporters that the strikes were the beginning of a “credible and sustainable” campaign to destroy the Islamic State. He and other officials said that the hope is to limit civilian casualties by using precision strikes. American officials are also hoping to counter any attempt by the Islamic State’s formidable propaganda arm to accuse the United States and its allies of killing civilians.
A Pentagon official said Tuesday that with the exception of the Tomahawk cruise missiles, all of the strikes were launched from aircraft inside Syrian airspace. But officials declined to say whether the American military jammed Syria’s air defense system or whether the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, simply decided to allow the coalition warplanes into the country’s airspace.
When asked, General Mayville said that Syria’s air defenses were “passive” during the strikes.
While the airstrikes are the opening wave in what officials say will be a sustained air campaign, military analysts say the weak link in the strategy for combating the Islamic State remains the ability to train and equip Iraqi forces and Syrian rebels. It will take time to build up forces in both countries that will be strong enough to capture and hold territory from the militants.
In Iraq, American advisers need to train the 26 Iraqi brigades that the Pentagon says are still intact and loyal to the government and help the Iraqis establish new national guard units, which would have the primary responsibility for defending Sunni-dominated provinces and would be recruited largely from Iraqi tribes.
A senior State Department official said that the new Iraqi government had a plan to establish the national guard units but acknowledged that doing so would not be easy.
“It is not going to be soon,” said the official, who could not be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters.
Meanwhile in Syria, the United States and its allies have another hard task in training the moderate Syrian resistance.
Hadi al-Bahra, the president of the Syrian opposition, said in an interview on Monday that some sort of no-fly zone would need to be imposed over Syria once the trained troops take to the battlefield so that the fighters would not be attacked by Mr. Assad’s air force. Mr. Bahra said that he met with Defense Department officials in New York to discuss the situation on the ground.
“Our forces have to be either equipped with an air-defense system like Manpads or a no-fly zone has to be imposed in these areas,” he said, referring to a type of shoulder-fired missile launcher. “We cannot throw our people to fight where they are a target of airstrikes by the regime.”
Turkey had been reluctant to play a prominent role in the American-led coalition while the militants held 49 Turkish hostages. But now that they have been released, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled Tuesday that Turkey would assist the effort in some way.
“We will give the necessary support to the operation; the support could be military or logistics,” Mr. Erdogan said, according to the Turkish broadcaster NTV. But Mr. Erdogan, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, did not provide details.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday at a meeting on countering terrorist threats, “Clearly, Turkey had an initial challenge with respect to its hostages and that being resolved, now Turkey is ready to conduct additional efforts along with the rest of us in order to guarantee success.”