IRAQ - Fight on Islamic State: News #2

"The RAF has used the largest bomb in its arsenal against Islamic State fighters for the first time, when it dropped two bunker buster weapons on a tunnel complex in Iraq. Tornado jets dropped the 2,000lb Enhanced Paveway III (EPWIII) bombs on entrances to a system of tunnels and bunkers dug into terraced hillsides above the Euphrates in western Iraq.

The bombs are four times larger than the Paveway IV laser guided bombs usually carried by Tornados and Typhoons in the air war against Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil).



A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The EPW III has been held in reserve for use if needed against particularly challenging underground or hardened targets.”The huge bombs, which entered service in 2002, are believed to have been last used in the 2011 air war against Col Muammar Gaddafi. Crews can guide them to targets via lasers or GPS.

The MoD would give no details of who was in the complex, or estimate the number of casualties. British warplanes have flown around 2,300 sorties and launched more than 650 air strikes against Isil, also known as Daesh, in the past 18 months as part of an international coalition to try to destroy the extremist militants."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/raf-uses-largest-bunker-buster-bombs-for-first-time-in-isil-war/

Militarov wrote:"The RAF has used the largest bomb in its arsenal against Islamic State fighters for the first time, when it dropped two bunker buster weapons on a tunnel complex in Iraq. Tornado jets dropped the 2,000lb Enhanced Paveway III (EPWIII) bombs on entrances to a system of tunnels and bunkers dug into terraced hillsides above the Euphrates in western Iraq.

The bombs are four times larger than the Paveway IV laser guided bombs usually carried by Tornados and Typhoons in the air war against Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil).


A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The EPW III has been held in reserve for use if needed against particularly challenging underground or hardened targets.”The huge bombs, which entered service in 2002, are believed to have been last used in the 2011 air war against Col Muammar Gaddafi. Crews can guide them to targets via lasers or GPS.

The MoD would give no details of who was in the complex, or estimate the number of casualties.  British warplanes have flown around 2,300 sorties and launched more than 650 air strikes against Isil, also known as Daesh, in the past 18 months as part of an international coalition to try to destroy the extremist militants."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/raf-uses-largest-bunker-buster-bombs-for-first-time-in-isil-war/

If 'minor' air forces can supply video, rather than stills, surely the 'mighty' RAF can too?

JohninMK wrote:

Militarov wrote:"The RAF has used the largest bomb in its arsenal against Islamic State fighters for the first time, when it dropped two bunker buster weapons on a tunnel complex in Iraq. Tornado jets dropped the 2,000lb Enhanced Paveway III (EPWIII) bombs on entrances to a system of tunnels and bunkers dug into terraced hillsides above the Euphrates in western Iraq.

The bombs are four times larger than the Paveway IV laser guided bombs usually carried by Tornados and Typhoons in the air war against Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil).


A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The EPW III has been held in reserve for use if needed against particularly challenging underground or hardened targets.”The huge bombs, which entered service in 2002, are believed to have been last used in the 2011 air war against Col Muammar Gaddafi. Crews can guide them to targets via lasers or GPS.

The MoD would give no details of who was in the complex, or estimate the number of casualties.  British warplanes have flown around 2,300 sorties and launched more than 650 air strikes against Isil, also known as Daesh, in the past 18 months as part of an international coalition to try to destroy the extremist militants."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/raf-uses-largest-bunker-buster-bombs-for-first-time-in-isil-war/

If 'minor' air forces can supply video, rather than stills, surely the 'mighty' RAF can too?

There is video on source, top of the page, it just cant be inserted here as they keep it on their own server rather than youtube http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/raf-uses-largest-bunker-buster-bombs-for-first-time-in-isil-war/

Militarov wrote:
There is video on source, top of the page, it just cant be inserted here as they keep it on their own server rather than youtube http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/raf-uses-largest-bunker-buster-bombs-for-first-time-in-isil-war/

Saw that but couldn't get it to run.

Iraq F16s giving CAS, blowing up an ISIS truck firing at them

GarryB wrote:

If 'minor' air forces can supply video, rather than stills, surely the 'mighty' RAF can too?

Their heaviest bomb is only 1,000kgs... how can they be considered a major air force?  

A KAB-1500 would be considered a grandslam I guess in their military...  

Well today weight is not everything. RAF is using mainly guided ammunition these days.

flamming_python wrote:

Militarov wrote:

GarryB wrote:

If 'minor' air forces can supply video, rather than stills, surely the 'mighty' RAF can too?

Their heaviest bomb is only 1,000kgs... how can they be considered a major air force?  

A KAB-1500 would be considered a grandslam I guess in their military...  

Well today weight is not everything. RAF is using mainly guided ammunition these days.

The KAB-1500 is guided too.

I was refering to fact that RuaF still has thing for heavy general-purpose bombs. Which you see less and less in RAF. I know that KAB is guided, but we havent seen alot of them around, FABs are still mainstray of heavy warload.

RAF got rid of many "heavy hammer" warloads and replaced them with lighter guided variants. They dont have much use for super heavy conventional bombs anyways, bunker busters tho yes.

Al-Jazeera's office in Baghdad closed down and its operating licence revoked after years of pro-ISIS coverage in Iraq.

lol

A fantastic speech by Haidar Shesho the leader of the Yazidi militia. he tells of the Peshmerga 11,000 men fleeing Sinjar leaving them to the hands of ISIS and the continued attempts by Kurdish parties to use the Yazidis as tools instead of respecting them.

Apparently there is mass protests in Iraq due to government failure to tackle corruption. The protestors stormed the legislative building.

https://www.rt.com/news/341466-iraq-protesters-baghdad-corruption/

sepheronx wrote:Apparently there is mass protests in Iraq due to government failure to tackle corruption.  The protestors stormed the legislative building.

https://www.rt.com/news/341466-iraq-protesters-baghdad-corruption/

Actually it is claimed because they failed to vote structural reforms for the third time in three months. I don't know much more, maybe Sheytan and Iraqiya can tell more.

KoTeMoRe wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Apparently there is mass protests in Iraq due to government failure to tackle corruption.  The protestors stormed the legislative building.

https://www.rt.com/news/341466-iraq-protesters-baghdad-corruption/

Actually it is claimed because they failed to vote structural reforms for the third time in three months. I don't know much more, maybe Sheytan and Iraqiya can tell more.

Yes continue failures led to storming of the green zone and parliament. They are all gone now from the Parliament and the PM Abadi is inspecting inside and greeting them outside. Hopefully the peoples voices will be heard because this is the last straw for the government to do the people right!

Iraqi CH-4B drones monitor ISIS IED plant then blown up by F16s (footage)

Navy SEAL Is Killed in Northern Iraq in Fight With ISIS

Islamic State fighters killed a member of the Navy SEALs on Tuesday after they broke through Kurdish defenses in northern Iraq, in what military officials described as the militant group’s biggest offensive in months.

Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona identified the serviceman as Charlie Keating IV, the grandson of the Arizona financier Charles H. Keating Jr., who was imprisoned in the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s.

He is the third American service member to die in combat since a United States-led coalition began fighting the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014. The death was also the third such casualty in combat since the American troop withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.

He was two to three miles behind the front lines when he was killed by small-arms fire, United States military officials said. American advisers have been assisting Iraqi security forces and Kurdish pesh merga fighters as they push to reclaim territory from the Islamic State.

For several months, American military officials have said that the Islamic State is on the defensive. But on Tuesday, the group’s fighters used Humvees and bulldozers to break through front-line Kurdish positions and enter the town of Teleskof, Iraq.

An American military official said that the Islamic State’s assault — which also killed several pesh merga fighters — was an effort to stymie an advance by the Iraqi military on Mosul, about 14 miles from Teleskof. Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has been held by the Islamic State since 2014.

With the Iraqi military pushing slowly toward Mosul, officials say that clashes like those on Tuesday may become more frequent, which could also heighten the danger to American troops in Iraq.

While President Obama has insisted that he is not putting combat troops on the ground in Iraq, the definition of combat has become further blurred with each new American death there.

Obama administration officials took pains to say that the new casualty did not occur on what the military was defining as the front line of battle, in keeping with Mr. Obama’s insistence about ground troops.

Still, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, while traveling in Germany on Tuesday, said that “it is a combat death.”

The Pentagon press secretary, Peter Cook, said in a statement that “this sad news is a reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face every day in the ongoing fight to destroy ISIL and end the threat the group poses to the United States and the rest of the world.” ISIL is an alternative name for the Islamic State.

Officials said that Islamic State fighters occupied Teleskof for several hours before they were driven out later in the day by pesh merga fighters. American officials said that fighter planes and drones were providing air support for the Kurdish fighters.

United States-backed forces, aided by American airstrikes, have killed 25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, military officials say. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have taken back 40 percent of the terrorist group’s land in Iraq, and forces backed by the West have seized 20 percent of Islamic State territory in Syria.

Nearly two years after the United States and its allies began the fight to stop the self-declared caliphate’s surge in Iraq and Syria, the campaign has made substantial gains and is nearing a turning point, but Tuesday’s attacks show why officials and military experts are cautious about predicting continued progress.

The first American to die in the campaign was Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Sequoyah County, Okla. Sergeant Wheeler was killed in October while responding to a helicopter raid by Kurdish commandos aimed at rescuing about 70 hostages who were about to be killed by Islamic State militants.

The second American service member killed was Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, 27, of Temecula, Calif., who died in March when the Islamic State fired rockets at a secret base of about 100 Marines in northern Iraq. He was leading Marines to a bunker when a rocket exploded near him.

B52 seen flying north of Baiji in Iraq

Amazing some footage from liberated towns south of Mosul with ISIS VBIED.

Seems Muricans dropped something they did not want to over Iraq:







Remains of pod fell near Makhmour on Kurdish positions

Iraqis and Toophans:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/04/charles-keating-iv-navy-seal-isis-battle-video?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


Video in...

Kurds in Iraq using what seems to be RB M57A1 grenade launcher, produced by former Yugoslavia:



More about it: http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1899

KoTeMoRe wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/04/charles-keating-iv-navy-seal-isis-battle-video?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


Video in...

And these are SEALs? Randomly standing on the road behind cars? Standing up while bullets are flying around? One trying to aim across the wall that is at least 15 cm higher than him.. like worst snackbar..

Militarov wrote:

KoTeMoRe wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/04/charles-keating-iv-navy-seal-isis-battle-video?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


Video in...

And these are SEALs? Randomly standing on the road behind cars? Standing up while bullets are flying around? One trying to aim across the wall that is at least 15 cm higher than him.. like worst snackbar..

I think these are part of DoD/CIA advisors with firepower. Among them you have Seals (check for US flag rolled on their backs).