Isis forces in Iraq will adapt quickly to avoid air strikes, Australia Defense Minister says

The Guardian ^ | 10/06/2014 | Daniel Hurst

[SeekAndFind]

Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq “will adapt very quickly” to an expanded campaign of air strikes by embedding themselves in towns, Australia’s defence minister has said.

David Johnston made the prediction on Monday as the Australian Defence Force (ADF) confirmed two RAAF F/A-18 Super Hornets had completed their first armed combat mission over northern Iraq without firing on any targets.

Johnston said RAAF aircraft would deploy on an operation and wait to be assigned targets, but there were a large number of coalition partners and aircraft participating in air strikes.

“It may be that from day to day, time to time, no such targeting is specified and in that instance our aircraft come home,” he told the ABC.

“We’re ready up in the air, ready to go, ready to be deployed, ready to assist the Iraqi security forces as and when required. Sometimes it won’t be required.”

Johnston acknowledged the potential for Isis extremists to adapt to the expanded air strike campaign by presenting fewer targets to the air forces.

“I think that’s pretty certain that they will adapt very quickly not to be out in the open where the Iraqi security forces can call in an air strike.”

The embedding of Isis militants in towns was “a much more difficult proposition and I think we’ve started to see adaptation already”, Johnston said.

“It was always going to be that the Iraqi security forces would have to step up and go into these towns and clean them out,” he said.

In a separate interview on Sunday, Johnston said Isis could be “extremely adaptive” and Iraq could be “quite a long campaign”. The situation would “get more difficult before it gets easy” and the ADF would take care to avoid causing civilian deaths, he said.

[gr8eman]

Yes...they will adapt by assuming ambient temperature.