Pentagon Not Targeting Islamic State Training Camps
No
airstrikes against 60 camps producing 1,000 fighters
monthly (Updated)
The Pentagon has not conducted
airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS)
training camps that are supplying thousands of
fighters each month to the terror group, according to
defense and intelligence officials.
The camps are spread throughout
Islamic State-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria and
are off limits in the U.S.-led international bombing
campaign because of concerns about collateral damage,
said officials familiar with planning and execution of
the yearlong bombing campaign.
Additionally, the IS (also known
as ISIS or ISIL) camps have been so successful that
Islamic State leaders are considering expanding the
camps to Libya and Yemen. Both states have become
largely ungoverned areas in recent years.
The failure to target the training
camps with U.S. and allied airstrikes is raising
questions among some defense and intelligence
officials about the commitment of President Obama and
his senior aides to the current anti-IS strategy of
degrading and ultimately destroying the terror group.
“If we know the location of these
camps, and the president wants to destroy ISIS, why
are the camps still functioning?” one official
critical of the policy asked.
The camps are regarded by U.S.
intelligence analysts as a key element in the terror
group’s successes in holding and taking new territory.
The main benefit of the training camps is that they
are providing a continuous supply of new fighters.
An additional worry of
intelligence analysts is that some of the foreign
fighters being trained in the camps will eventually
return to their home countries in Europe and North
America to carry out terror attacks.
A White House spokesman declined
to comment on the failure to bomb the terror camps and
referred questions to the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Roger M.
Cabiness declined to say why no training camps have
been bombed. “I am not going to be able to go into
detail about our targeting process,” he said.
Cabiness said the U.S.-led
coalition has “hit ISIL [an alternative abbreviation
for the Islamic State] with more than 6,000
airstrikes.”
“The coalition has also taken out
thousands of fighting positions, tanks, vehicles, bomb
factories, and training camps,” he said. “We have also
stuck their leadership, including most recently on
Aug. 18 when a U.S. military airstrike removed Fadhil
Ahmad al-Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, the
second in command of the terrorist group, from the
battlefield.”
Efforts also are being taken to
disrupt IS finances and “make it more difficult for
the group to attract new foreign fighters,” Cabiness
said in an email.
Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the coalition
has conducted 19 airstrikes against training areas,
the most recent on Aug. 5. The Central Command’s news
release for that day, however, makes no reference to a
training camp being struck in airstrikes. A July 30
release states that training areas were hit.
According to the Command’s
website, a total of 6,419 airstrikes have been carried
out over the past year, 3,991 in Iraq, and 2,428
Syria, indicating .3 percent of the airstrikes were
carried out against training areas.
“Whenever we identify ISIL moving,
staging, operating or training in any number, target
them and strike them,” Ryder said. “As a result, ISIL
is not longer able to move freely or train openly for
fear of being hit.”
As a result of the air campaign,
ISIL has begun “hiding amongst civilian populations
and employing terrorist weapons from entrenched,
defensive hiding places,” Ryder said, adding,
“regardless, the coalition can and will continue to
identify, pursue and strike them relentlessly.”
According to the defense and
intelligence officials, one reason the training camps
have been off limits is that political leaders in the
White House and Pentagon fear hitting them will cause
collateral damage. Some of the camps are located near
civilian facilities and there are concerns that
casualties will inspire more jihadists to join the
group.
However, military officials have
argued that unless the training camps are knocked out,
IS will continue to gain ground and recruit and train
more fighters for its operations.
Disclosure that the IS training
camps are effectively off limits to the bombing
campaign comes as intelligence officials in the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and U.S. Central
Command, which is in charge of the conflict, have
alleged that senior U.S. officials skewed intelligence
reports indicating the U.S. strategy against IS is not
working or has been less effective than officials have
claimed in public.
The Islamic State controls large
parts of Syria and Iraq and has attracted tens of
thousands of jihadists in both countries and from
abroad. The exact number of fighters is not known but
intelligence estimates have indicated the numbers have
increased over the past year.
The military campaign, known as
Operation Inherent Resolve, appears to be floundering
despite a yearlong campaign of airstrikes and military
training programs aimed to bolstering Iraqi military
forces.
A review of Central Command reports on airstrikes
since last year reveals that few attacks were carried
out against training camps.
Targets instead included Islamic
State vehicles, buildings, tactical units, arms
caches, fighting positions, snipers, excavators,
mortar and machine gun positions, bunkers, and bomb
factories.
The risk-averse nature of the
airstrike campaign was highlighted last month by Brig.
Gen. Thomas Weidley, chief of staff for what the
military calls Combined Joint Task Force-Operation
Inherent Resolve.
“The coalition continues to use
air power responsibly,” Weidley said July 1. “Highly
precise deliveries, detailed weaponeering, in-depth
target development, collateral damage mitigation, and
maximized effects on Daesh, are characteristics of
coalition airstrike operation in Iraq and Syria.”
Daesh is another name for the
Islamic State.
“The coalition targeting process
minimizes collateral damage and maximizes precise
effects on Daesh,” Weidley said earlier. “Air crews
are making smart decisions and applying tactical
patience every day.”
Other coalition spokesman have
indicated that targeting has been limited to reaction
strikes against operational groups of IS fighters.
“When Daesh terrorists expose themselves and their
equipment, we will strike them,” Col. Wayne Marotto
said May 27.
The military website Long
War Journal published
a map showing 52 IS
training camps and noted that some may no longer be
operating because of the U.S.-led bombing campaign.
Bill Roggio, Long
War Journal managing
editor, said the Islamic State’s training camps are a
direct threat to the region and U.S. national
security.
“While the vast majority of
trainees have been used to fight in local
insurgencies, which should be viewed as a threat.
Historically jihadist groups have selected a small
number of fighters going through their camps to
conduct attacks against the West. The Islamic State is
most certainly following this model,” he said.
According the map, among the
locations in Iraq and Syria where IS is operating
training camps are Mosul, Raqqah, Nenewa, Kobane,
Aleppo, Fallujah, and Baiji.
The group MEMRI obtained a video of an IS
training camp in Nenewa Province, Iraq, dated Oct. 1,
2014.
The video shows a desert outpost
with tan tents and around 100 fighters who take part
in hand-to-hand combat exercises, weapons training,
and religious indoctrination.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an analyst
with the Middle East Forum, in June translated details of IS training
purportedly obtained from a manual produced by a
pro-IS operative in Mosul named Omar Fawaz.
Among those involved in
ideological training for IS jihadists in Iraq is
Bahraini cleric Turki Binali, who wrote an unofficial
biography of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Tamimi
stated in a blog post June 24.
According to a document thought to
be written by Fawaz, training differs for native
Iraqis and Syrians as opposed to foreign fighters, who
generally are less experienced militarily than the
regional trainees.
The document also reveals IS plans
to export military manpower abroad, including Libya.
“Sessions for the muhajireen
[foreign fighters] brothers last 90 days or more, and
at the highest level deal with organization,
determination, and intelligence operation, including
training on heavy weaponry in addition to
comprehensive Sharia sessions and multiple tests,”
according to a translation of the document. “Sessions
for the Ansar from the people of Iraq and al-Sham
range between 30 to 50 days.”
The process begins with an
application form and questionnaire regarding
education, skills, viewpoints, and whether their
backgrounds can be verified.
The training then includes
physical fitness, martial arts practice, weapons
training, and ideological indoctrination.
After a week of training,
jihadists with special abilities are selected and
placed in units. The units include special forces, air
defense, sniper units, a “caliphate army,” an “army of
adversity,” and administrative units for those capable
of using electronic devices and accounting.
“The rest are distributed in
fronts and camps after the end of the military camp
training according to where they are needed,” the
report said, noting that all graduates are tested in
Sharia at the conclusion of their training.
The New
York Times reported
Tuesday that the Pentagon inspector general is
investigating allegations that military officials
doctored intelligence reports in an attempt to present
more optimistic accounts of the U.S. military’s
efforts in the conflict.
The probe was triggered by a DIA
analyst who stated that Central Command officials were
improperly rewriting intelligence assessments prepared
for policy makers, including President Obama.
The Daily
Beast reported
Wednesday that senior military and intelligence
officials inappropriately pressured U.S. terrorism
analysts to alter estimates of the strength of the
Islamic State to portray the group as weaker.
Central Command, on its website,
stated that in the year since the Iraq operation began
on Aug. 7, 2014, a total of 6,419 air strikes were
carried out.
Targets damaged or destroyed include 119 tanks, 340 Humvees, 510 staging areas, 3,262 buildings, 2,577 fighting positions, 196 oil infrastructure targets, and 3,680 “other” targets not further identified.
Targets damaged or destroyed include 119 tanks, 340 Humvees, 510 staging areas, 3,262 buildings, 2,577 fighting positions, 196 oil infrastructure targets, and 3,680 “other” targets not further identified.
Update 29 August,
12:00 P.M: This
post has been updated with comment from Bill Roggio
of theLong War Journal.
Update 30 August,
6:40 P.M: This
post has been updated with additional comment from a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command.
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