This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Terror War

  • Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Conrad killed in Somalia

    Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Conrad killed in Somalia

    Business Insider reports that a special forces soldier was killed and four others were wounded during an engagement in Jubaland, Somalia;

    One US service member reportedly received sufficient medical care at the scene and three others were transported out of the area to receive treatment.

    A coalition comprised of around 800 US, Somalian, and Kenyan forces came under attack by mortar and small-arms fire at around 2:45 p.m. local time, AFRICOM said. One coalition service member was wounded.

    The coalition forces were conducting a “multi-day operation” to clear al-Shabaab — an Islamist militant group — from villages and establish a “permanent combat outpost” around 217 miles southwest of Mogadishu.

    The Department of Defense identified the soldier as Staff Sergeant Alexander W. Conrad;

    Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Conrad, 26, of Chandler, Arizona, died June 8, in Somalia of injuries sustained from enemy indirect fire. The incident is under investigation.

    Conrad was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

  • Everitt Aaron Jameson; jihadist sentenced

    Everitt Aaron Jameson; jihadist sentenced

    Late last year, Everitt Aaron Jameson was arrested by the FBI when he plotted to kill Americans with the help of FBI informants. He claimed to be a recent adherent to Islam and an admirer of ISIS and al Qaeda, according to the complaint document. He also bragged that he was a Marine. We got his DD214 and discovered that he had about four months in the Marine Corps before he was kicked to the curb;

    According to Fox News, he was sentenced today to 15 years in prison as part of a plea agreement;

    Lee said his client was having second thoughts and didn’t actually take steps to carry out the plot. Investigators found no bomb-making materials, and three firearms found during a search were legally owned by his stepfather and were locked in a gun case where Jameson couldn’t to get them, Lee said.

    An undercover agent told Jameson several times to think about what he was doing, according to the FBI, and each time Jameson said he was ready to attack. Agents also recovered a martyr’s letter signed with an Islamic variation of Jameson’s name.

    Jameson was discharged from the Marines for having an allergic reaction to a bee sting, had a “tumultuous marriage” in which his wife went to prison for attacking him with a knife, and he lost parental rights to his two children two days before he first talked to agents, Lee said.

    He intended to attack his victims on Christmas Day in San Francisco using pipe bombs to corral them into an area where he could shoot them. The FBI gave him several chances to talk himself out of his plans.

    Among the documents in his home, investigators found this letter;

  • Taliban fighters wearing US uniform in Kabul attack

    Taliban fighters wearing US uniform in Kabul attack

    Military.com reports that the Taliban who attacked the Afghan interior ministry yesterday were wearing the Universal Camouflage Pattern Uniforms of US Army troops.

    The attackers were attempting to drive through a checkpoint into the government complex when they were stopped by Afghan security, he said.

    “They were wearing old-style Army uniforms,” Nicholson said. “The good news is that the guards at the gate, the Afghan guards, immediately recognized these as old uniforms, called on them to exit the vehicle so they could be checked out and, at that point, the fighting started.”

    Nicholson said he was told one of the attackers “detonated his suicide vest and actually killed himself and some of his colleagues as they were conducting the attack.”

    “They never gained entrance to the MOI headquarters,” he said.

    The Afghan special police reaction unit on “alert status inside the city quickly reacted and killed all these terrorists before they could gain entrance to the MOI,” Nicholson said.

    Seven of the eight enemy fighters were killed in the attempted attack; one was taken prisoner, Nicholson said.

    It’s difficult to imitate US troops when they change their uniform so often, I guess.

    Thanks to Bobo for the link.

  • 379th AEW bomber strikes Taliban drug facilities

    Bone

    U.S. Air Forces Central Command reports B-1B Lancer aircraft from the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron (EBS) bombed multiple Taliban narcotics production and storage facilities in Afghanistan during a mission on May 18.

    The 34th EBS BONEs deployed their largest amount of weapons on narcotics facilities since the squadron’s reintroduction in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command’s AOR in April.

    This mission was part of realigning airpower from Operation Inherent Resolve, to support increased activity in Afghanistan and bolster Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) capabilities.

    “Increased airpower supports a deliberate air campaign designed to degrade the Taliban’s primary means of funding its operations — narcotics production,” said Capt. Mark Olme, a 34th EBS pilot. “These strikes will mitigate the Taliban’s ability to fund insurgent operations that kill innocent Afghan civilians and strengthen the ANDSF’s ability to fight and win on the ground.”

    The ANDSF are now planning and calling their own strikes and successfully demonstrating the ability to integrate operations that enable battlefield successes. Together with U.S. airpower and advisors, they will continue to develop the critical war-fighting capabilities needed to help them in their task of defeating the Taliban and other threats.

    Since November, more than 75 strikes against narcotics processing and storage facilities and stockpiles have resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars for the Taliban. According to Frank Mercurio, 34th EBS chief of weapons and tactics, the intent is to go after the root of the problem.

    “We’re trying to target their means of funding,” Mercurio said. “So if we take out their narcotics factories, storage and production — we’re basically rooting the Taliban from any money or funding they might have to then go and use against innocent Afghan civilians.”

    According to Olme, there are several parties that work together to make missions like this possible.

    “We work together with the joint terminal attack controller, command and control network, tasking authorities and usually an air-refueling tanker,” Olme said. “There are five or six entities all working in conjunction during missions like this.”

    The reputable B-1 — with its supersonic speed, long loiter time and massive payload — returned to the U. S. Central Command AOR in April to combat Taliban and other terrorist groups after two years of supporting the U. S. Pacific Command’s AOR.

    “We are not in the Pacific anymore,” Olme said. “We’re back and we’re making our presence known with the Taliban.”

    Good to see the BONEs back, and hitting them where it hurts.

  • Yemen National Army finds child used for human shield

    Gulf News reports that the Yemen National Army encountered a vehicle from the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The driver, a Houthi commander also had a 4-year-old girl in the vehicle, his daughter, wearing boy’s clothing, who they were using as a human shield;

    Upon investigation, it was discovered the driver was her father, an Al Houthi militia field commander carrying advanced tactical weapons.

    The child was being used as a human shield on the battlefield, as the terrorist Iranian-backed Al Houthi militia knew the coalition’s rules of engagement, especially those related to child protection.

    The Coalition Joint Forces, represented by its Child Protection Unit, provided necessary medical care to the child, communicated and coordinated her safe transfer to her family. She was handed over to the legitimate government of Yemen, in the presence of her family and relatives yesterday. The Joint Forces Command also provided financial aid to the child and her family.

    Col. Al Malki said Al Houthi actions are in flagrant defiance of international humanitarian law, as they involve recruiting children, putting them on the battlefield and using them as human shields.

  • F-35 Stealth Fighter’s Inaugural Combat Operations

    F-35s
    Haaretz News reports that Israel is the first country in the world to carry out an “operational attack” with the F-35 stealth fighter, Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said on Tuesday.

    “I think that we are the first to attack with the F-35 in the Middle East,” Norkin said. The air force chief was speaking about the Middle East, but this is the first known operational use of the new fifth-generation fighter jet in the world.

    Norkin presented images of the F-35 over Beirut, Lebanon, and said that while the stealth fighter did not participate in the most recent strike in Syria, it did in the two previous ones. He was speaking at a conference organized by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in Herzliya, where senior officers from armies all over the world were invited.

    The IAF commander said that Iran fired 32 rockets at Israel during the flare-up across the Syrian border earlier this month. According to him, four rockets were intercepted by Israel and the rest landed outside of Israeli territory, and more than 100 surface-to-air missiles were fired at Israeli jets over Syria.

    “After that [the Iranian attack] we attacked over 20 Iranian targets in Syria. Unfortunately, Syrian air defense systems fired over 100 antiaircraft missiles at our planes and in response we destroyed their antiaircraft batteries,” Norkin said.

    A senior IAF officer confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces has continued to operate against Iranian forces in Syria since the attack on Israel, which took place overnight between May 9 and 10.

    “It is possible to assume that actions have been taken since the recent events,” he explained. “We are continuing to maintain our freedom of action in the region. We are acting to disrupt and prevent [possible attacks] while keeping the situation below the threshold of war.”

    “We are continuing with our operational mission against the arming of Hezbollah and Iranian moves to establish themselves in Syria. As far as we are concerned, anywhere we identify consolidation [of Iranian forces] or the introduction of weapons, we act,” the officer added. “Our success is any move that serves the goals of the government leadership, this is our mission.”

    IAF chief Norkin outlined the reasons behind Israel’s growing anxiety over Iranian activities in Syria. “The Quds Force established itself at T-4 base, 250 kilometers from Israel. From this base they tried to attack using a drone that entered into Israel, a few months ago. After this incident we realized that they were continuing to store weapons on this base, including air defense capabilities, which we attacked last month,” he explained at the conference.

    “Over the past few weeks we learned that Iran had sent long-range missiles and rockets to Syria, including the Uragan launchers that we attacked north of Damascus,” added Norkin.

    He told the conference that Israel’s squadron of F-35 jets has taken part in attacks in the Middle East, but the senior officer noted that even though the aircraft are now operational, the IAF is still examining the best ways to operate them. The F-35 has an “incredible potential” and the IAF is currently discussing how to best exploit its huge range of capabilities, he said.

    For its part, Israel announced that none of its warplanes had been hit, rather that it had attacked five Syrian antiaircraft batteries and reportedly destroyed all of them after coming under heavy fire.

    According to Haaretz’s senior military analyst, the attack dealt a severe blow to embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s antiaircraft forces. The IAF said that five of the batteries that were hit belonged to the Syrian Army and were Russian-built models: SA-22, SA-2, SA-5 and SA-17.

    The first use of the F-35 in combat is a major milestone for the aircraft that has been in development since the early 1990s. The program has been marred by both cost overruns and delays, and persistent attacks by critics who have called into question the jet’s warfighting abilities. This is welcome news for the U.S. Marine Corps, which has deployed its short take-off and vertical landing version, the F-35B, to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, and the US Air Force, which plans to permanently deploy F-35As to the Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath, in England.

  • Saudi Air Defense Forces Intercept Ballistic Missile Fired by Houthis

    Saudi Air Defense Forces Intercept Ballistic Missile Fired by Houthis

    The Center for International Communication (CIC), Ministry of Culture and Information, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent us a press release this morning, announcing that they had intercepted a ballistic missile fired at the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen;

    RIYADH, May 19, 2018 – The spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Col. Turki Almalki, said Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces on Saturday evening intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia towards Saudi Arabia from Saada governorate in Yemen.

    Another missile fired by the Houthis in the same direction landed in the desert.

    “The ballistic missile was intercepted at exactly 6.14pm Riyadh time,” Col Almalki said in a statement.

    “The Saudi Royal Air Defence Forces spotted another missile that landed in an uninhabited desert.

    Thankfully there were no reports of any damage until the time this statement was issued,” he added.

    He said that the two rockets were aimed at the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait and were targeted at busy civilian areas.

    Col. Almalki said: “This hostile action by the Houthi terrorist group supported by Iran proves the Iranian regime’s sustained involvement in supporting the Houthis with material capabilities, in clear defiance of UN Resolutions 2216 and 2231 in order to undermine the security of Saudi Arabia, the region and the international community.

    “The firing of ballistic missiles at populated towns and villages is contrary to international humanitarian law.”

    The Saudis have intercepted four other missiles fired by the Iranian clients this monthl

  • Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition leading in Iraq elections

    Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition leading in Iraq elections

    Reinforcing my belief that they should have killed him when they had the chance, Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition is taking an early lead in Iraq’s election, according to Stars & Stripes. al-Sadr encouraged his followers to kill US troops while he resided safely in Iran with his Shi’ite benefactors.

    If the results hold, al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood and southern Iraq, could be in a position to determine Iraq’s next leader. Al-Sadr has repeatedly called for the complete withdrawal of all American troops from Iraqi soil.

    Al-Sadr is a nationalist opposed to all foreign influence, including both U.S. and Iranian. He campaigned on a platform that criticized Iraq’s current political leadership as deeply corrupt.

    Al-Sadr did not run for election but commands a coalition, known as Sairoon, which won by a large margin in Baghdad, which accounts for the largest number of seats in Iraq’s 329-member parliament that in turn selects the prime minister. A ticket led by the commander of a Shiite militia close to Iran came in second, according to preliminary results release Sunday night.

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Iran’s support of al-Sadr while he “bravely” urged his followers to fight US troops to their deaths from his apartment in Tehran will count for something if he gets a hold of the reins of power in Iraq.

    He surprised Iraqis by forming a cross-sectarian, non-Islamist electoral coalition for Saturday’s vote that includes Iraq’s communist party.

    Everything old is new again.