To see where they fled. This is how you kill an entire cell rather than just the ditch-diggers.
Posted on 07/17/2006 7:19:30 PM PDT by SandRat
7/17/2006 - BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) -- The combined efforts of Air Force Airmen and Multi-national Division-Baghdad Soldiers foiled the efforts of terrorists today attempting to put into place an improvised-explosive device south of Baghdad.
Airmen from the 11th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron's Joint Terminal Attack Controller unit notified Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, of reports from their F-15E Strike Eagle pilots of four men digging beside a road.
The Soldiers moved to investigate the report and, upon arrival, saw the four suspects flee the area in a van.
The F-15E pilots departed the area to refuel and handed the operation over to an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircrew, which followed the suspects' movements from the sky and spotted them abandoning their vehicle. The pilots continued to relay the information to the JTAC on the ground.
The JTAC was able to lead Soldiers on the ground to the vehicle, where they discovered four 152 mm rounds and detonation cord.
bump
While a positive story..., a more positive result would have been a strike on the van..., detonating their IED in their LAP!!!!
Or at least capturing the four. But we got a van.
Right on! Great work! Salute!
Though that would have been nice, the pilots could not know for sure that they were bad guys. Better to err on the side of caution, that's what makes US the good guys.
I've read the story twice, and still can't find the sentence where they blow these 4 guys up into little pieces. Did I miss something?
Nope it just doesn't say.
...and the perps were allowed to live? Why?
I have a lot more respect for our airmen's intelligence.
Digging by the side of a road?
Fleeing in a white van when approached?
Abandoning the van?
WTH?
Fifth graders would be able to connect those dots!
Don't know if you've ever been there but it's tougher than you think.
you can't read the perp's their rights from 15k feet
Depends on the ordinance the fighters were carrying. They tend to carry stuff to blow up large areas.
Now, something like an Apache, with a Hellfire, or a 2.75 rocket, which could kill the van without taking out nearby houses ...
Rommel, the Desert Fox, was injured and taken out of the war by a plane going by who just happened to drop their bombs on the car. The pilot had no idea a general was in the car. Unfortunately the 4 men have gotten away to kill more soldiers.
Until we crush the enemies will to oppose and fight we will never "win". Blasting the enemy, their cities and their families to smithereens worked in Germany and Japan. It would work here too.
Should read "endangering the lives of our troops"
To see where they fled. This is how you kill an entire cell rather than just the ditch-diggers.
And I bet Rommel was in a military vehicle which is a legit target. The F15/16 jockeys had no way of knowing FOR SURE that they were bad guys. We don't kill indiscriminately.
No he was not in a military vehicle he was in a Mercedes.
But it was Spitfire from the British Air Force who killed his driver and gave him head injuries that took him out of the rest of the war. I am saying we should be killing more "indiscriminately" precisely because it worked in Germany and Japan where we intentionally targeted civillians. You may disagree with the methods we used in WWII but it's how we won.
We have not "defeated" the enemy in Iraq because we are fighting by different rules doctrines of warfare now which we have imposed on ourselves.
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