Could we not set up some of these guys (with support) about a mile or mile and a half away and continue to "pick them off" without endangering the women and kids. (I would not weep if there was some unfortunate collateral damage)
Posted on 09/08/2017 11:42:59 AM PDT by Red Badger
IRBIL, Iraq — An attempt by Islamic State to evacuate hundreds of fighters from western Syria to the Iraqi border has instead left them sitting ducks for aerial attacks by the U.S.-led coalition on the convoy.
“We were able to exploit it and take advantage,” Army Col. Ryan S. Dillon, a coalition spokesman, said of the ISIS maneuver Thursday morning as 11 buses full of ISIS fighters and civilians remained stranded in the Syrian desert.
U.S. warplanes continue to pick off militants who stray too far from the protection of the convoy’s women and children, officials said. Strikes have also destroyed militant vehicles coming to the area from ISIS-held territory.
“Like moths to the flame,” more than 40 vehicles have come to try to aid the convoy, including armored technical vehicles and a tank disguised as a truck, Dillon said. “We were able to continue to just observe and pick them off one at a time.”
More than 300 ISIS fighters and about as many women and children had set off about 10 days ago from an enclave on the Lebanon-Syria border after surrendering and brokering a deal with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group for safe passage through Syrian government-held territory. They rode on 17 buses bound for extremist-held areas farther east.
But the U.S.-led coalition, which was not a party to the agreement, quickly scrambled to block their progress. Airstrikes cratered the roadway, disabled a bridge and stranded the convoy in no man’s land between Syrian- and ISIS-held territory on the border with Iraq. This forced six buses to turn back toward the city of Palmyra — and the protection of the Syrian army and Hezbollah.
In recent days, a group of nearly a dozen militants on an apparent scouting mission were targeted after they ventured far enough away from the group of 11 buses, ensuring that civilians would not be harmed in a strike, Dillon said. In all, more than 85 militants have been killed since the convoy was halted 10 days ago, which has saved the coalition the effort of hunting them down, he said.
U.S. officials have disputed claims by Syrian opposition activists that dozens of the ISIS fighters and their families had still managed to cross into ISIS-held areas using civilian vehicles. The convoy “has not ... and will not reach Iraq,” Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the coalition, said Wednesday on Twitter.
The coalition watched the buses that turned back until they were near Palmyra and has constantly monitored the others marooned on the road to the Iraqi frontier, Dillon said.
The coalition has promised to prevent the experienced fighters from linking up with extremists to the east but is continuing to allow supplies of food and water to reach the convoy from the Syrian government side, he said. A delivery on Tuesday night ended with the fighters showing apparent signs of frustration at being pinned down as they attacked each other.
“You could clearly tell they were going to fisticuffs,” Dillon said.
“dozens of the ISIS fighters and their families”
Bomb the whole convoy and be done with it.
Right now, the buses are ‘bait’.....................
Lotsa Germans women and children on passenger trains got strafed by Thunderbolts.
With ISIS, I want to see the slightest proof that the women and children are not jihadi just as deserving of napalm.
We hear “children” and think tikes on trikes. The US Government calls a 20 year old Sinaloa or MS 13 member with a pancho villa mustache a “child”.
Schools in Canada, the US, and the EU are filling up with men in their 20s who claim to be a 15 year old.
Don’t fall for propaganda. That’s an ISIS convoy and that’s all we need to know. It should be incinerated form the air. Our Generals are so gay and pussified. They issue press releases to tell us when they blow up a tank.
“Kinda like the Kuwait-Baghdad Highway at the end of Desert Storm..................”
No, nothing like that. Back then Generals weren’t pussies wanting the names and ages of everyone in the convoy, and carefully deciding the guilt or innocence of every individual truck and person.
I just love it!
Bait and shoot......
The press was on our side when we attacked Germans. Right now they are waiting everyday for “red meat” propaganda that they can throw in our faces for the next 3 1/2 years. Until we can carpet bomb the NYT building as well, we just have to be a little more creative in killing terrorists.
Curtis LeMay would have destroyed anything that moved. Today, we divert enemy convoys instead of destroying them.
If there’s no video, it didn’t happen. I want video! Gimme some Live Leak. Nothing like a pink mist from a 50 cal in the brain pan in the morning.
Dittos to that! We want video of our guys muzzie plinkin’, either from the air or by ground troops. (I particularly like the Apache YouTube vids where they shred the savages with their cannon!)
600 people in 11 buses. Sounds crowded.
Hunting over bait (LOL).
Roger Spooky, you are free to engage.
Mission
The AC-130U “Spooky” gunships’ primary missions are close air support, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. Close air support missions include troops in contact, convoy escort and point air defense. Air interdiction missions are conducted against preplanned targets or targets of opportunity and include strike coordination, reconnaissance, and armed overwatch mission sets.
Features
This heavily armed aircraft incorporate side-firing weapons integrated with sophisticated sensor, navigation, and fire control systems to provide surgical firepower or area saturation during extended loiter periods, at night and in adverse weather. The sensor suite consists of a multispectral television sensors, high definition infrared sensors, and radar. These sensors allow the gunship to visually or electronically identify friendly ground forces and targets anytime, anywhere.
The AC-130U employs synthetic aperture strike radar for long-range and adverse weather target detection and identification. The AC-130’s navigational devices include inertial navigation systems and global positioning systems. The AC-130U’s capability to track and engage two targets simultaneously with different levels of ordnance is an invaluable asset to Special Operations Forces on the ground. .
Could we not set up some of these guys (with support) about a mile or mile and a half away and continue to "pick them off" without endangering the women and kids. (I would not weep if there was some unfortunate collateral damage)
The late-columnist Art Buckwald once wrote a satirical piece on what it cost (in terms of ordnance expended) to kill each NVA (or Viet Cong) soldier. It was a ridiculous figure. He then supposed that we should sub-contract the war to the Mafia based upon the much cheaper prevailing rate to have somebody whacked. Funny piece!
But it does point out a problem when fighting 3rd world enemies... you can literally “go broke” expending high-tech ordnance to kill targets that can be taken out with a 5.56 round.
Been there done that I'm sorry to say....
Their children have already been taught to behead infidels.
Never accept the surrender of a murdering TERRORIST.
Kill them all, including their women and children (its called collateral damage) and the problem is solved for posterity.
Never accept the surrender of a murdering TERRORIST.
Kill them all, including their women and children (its called collateral damage) and the problem is solved for posterity.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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