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Coalition Commander Says Airstrikes Just a 'Stopgap' Until Iraqi Forces Can Pull Themselves Together

Canadian Air Force commander makes an unusually blunt assessment of the air mission against the so-called Islamic State, arguing the coalition can’t do much more until the Iraqi forces can retake their country.
Justin Ling
Montreal, CA
Photo by US Air Forces Central Command via EPA

There will be no change in strategy for the time being, say coalition commanders fighting the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, despite a series of high-profile setbacks.

Fighter jets from a collection of Western and Arab countries will continue the tempo of their airstrikes while they wait for the rag-tag group of allied fighters to get their act together, according to Brigadier General Lise Bourgon, who commands Canada's air force in theatre.

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"Winning takes time," said Bourgon at a media briefing on Friday morning.

"So right now, it's not our fight. We're supporting the Iraqi Forces. What we're doing is a stopgap. We're allowing them the time to get trained so that they can come back and do the full attack and regain their territories."

Bourgon's blunt assessment is a departure from the usual language around the air mission.

"We will continue to conduct airstrikes to dismantle and defeat ISIL," Major Jens Lunde, spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force — the umbrella organization for all of the coalition partners — promised VICE News.

But even the notes of limited optimism are flanked by frustration over a lack of results from the air campaign designed to thwart IS' advance through the Middle East, thanks to a series of stunning failures by the Iraqi army.

That philosophy also underscores the lingering question of what to do with Syria, where finding a Western-friendly fighting force to displace IS is near impossible.

In May, fighters with the militant group captured Ramadi from the Iraqi Service Forces (ISF). The city is the capital of Anbar province and is just 80 miles from Baghdad. It allows the fighters to choke off a crucial supply route to the capital from the West and to prepare for an advance on Fallujah, which is expected in days thanks in part to sympathetic tribes in the area.

The failures are to blame, in part, because ISF soldiers have been notoriously unreliable, often abandoning their posts — and weapons — in the face of smaller invading forces.

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Later in May, on the other side of the expansive territory owned by IS, fighters managed to wrest control of Palmyra from Syrian government forces, killing potentially hundreds in the process.

Footage of an airstrike from a Canadian CF-18 Hornet on a bridge near Bayji. Footage courtesy of the Canadian Forces.

Successes in Syria are made possible because forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are demoralized and ill-equipped as years of vicious civil war have drained the state's ability to control much of its own territory. The nominally moderate Free Syrian Army has been limited to small-scale operations in northwest Syria, while rival islamist groups like the Islamic Front and al-Nusra Front have oscillated from tacit cooperation with IS to battling to retain control of their small network of cities in the face of the well-equipped militants.

The Kurds, to the north, have been effective in winning key cities near their territory, but have avoided venturing further south than need be. Iran-backed militias have had some success in driving IS out of their captured cities, but have done so without support from the West.

Those realities have created a dicey situation that has left the West with no clear option, other than to continue applying pressure and hoping the ISF can get things together.

"I think we're doing what we can," said Bourgon when asked by VICE News what the coalition could be doing differently. "We're there, supporting the Iraqi Forces. On the other side, the training that we're doing in Iraq with the coalition, we're really forming the next generation of Iraqi fighters and that's when Iraq is going to be able to regain their territory and we, in the Air Force, and our assets, we're going to be there to support."

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Bourgon wouldn't say whether there is concern over the readiness of the ISF.

"It's not for me to comment on the capacities, or the efficiency, of the personnel in the Iraqi Forces. We've definitely seen certain tactical setbacks, and there have been lessons to learn," she said, but added that "we've seen the impact of the special forces who are doing the help and training of those [Iraqi] forces, and that's continuing everyday. The Iraqi forces are improving."

Related: Iraq Pleads for More Help From West as Bombs Continue to Drop on Islamic State

The prospect that the West is merely trying to tamp down IS' rise while waiting for the ISF to learn how to fight is a depressing prospect that the coalition is generally not keen to underline. And Ramadi is emblematic of that.

"We are right now in a position that the counter-offensive is going to start eventually," Bourgon said. 'Eventually' being the key word.

Part of the problem is a lack of effective boots on the ground in Iraq.

"In the meantime, we're looking at what's around Ramadi to try and facilitate a little bit when the assault and the counter-offensive is going to start. So we are there but, again, the targeting is so dependent on ISR — intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance — that it's difficult," Bourgon said.

Canadian surveillance aircraft and American drones have helped target units in Syria, but as one of the air force commanders stationed in Kuwait told VICE, the IS fighters have gotten better at hiding.

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Near Ramadi, there have been just 21 airstrikes since the ISF abandoned the city to IS in May.

Lunde told VICE News that once those counter-offensives do begin, air power will be key.

"Al-Hasakah and Ramadi areas are within the coalition's top five areas in terms of targetable ISIL activity," he said. When ground forces maneuver against Daesh, this activity becomes the catalyst for attraction, as these terrorists present themselves for coalition strikes."

But al-Hasakah and Ramadi are very different situations. Even if the mission in Iraq is frustrated by a lack of capabilities by the local forces, Syria is a quagmire with no clear ally.

"In Iraq, all strikes are approved by the government of Iraq,". When it comes to Syria, Lunde says, "the Coalition will continue to strike ISIL at the time and place of our choosing."

Footage of an airstrike on an Islamic State compound. Footage courtesy of the Canadian Forces.

The numbers from all of the airstrikes paint a less-than-stellar picture of the air mission.

Since the beginning of June, the coalition has hit only 251 targets — 98 in Syria, and 153 in Iraq — largely dispersed around areas of IS control. In the northeast Syrian town of al-Hasakah, where IS has made significant advances, there's been just 27 strikes, mostly on vehicles and staging positions. In al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the supposed caliphate, 29 strikes have zeroed in on car bombs and construction equipment. In Sinjar, where the Kurdish Peshmerga have been attempting a counter-attack for months, there were just 20 strikes over the same period.

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The American military, which has likely committed more airpower than every coalition partner combined, had, as of early May, hit just over 6,000 positions across Iraq and Syria. About a third of those strikes were 'other targets' which includes construction material and "land features."

Bourgon says focusing on the number obscures the importances of the strikes.

"It's not about, you know, how many strikes we do. We're stopping them and the situation on the ground is not worse," the commander said. "So we're just buying time until the Iraqi forces is trained and equipped to make the difference."

It's not quite clear what could be done to improve outcomes in the war-ravaged area.

Criticism of the fight against IS has stemmed from both sides — from those who think the mission shouldn't have gone ahead in the first place, and those who think it's woefully inadequate.

The new language from the commanders appears to acknowledge that frustration.

When the mission began, commanders promised the objective was the three Ds — degrade, disrupt and defeat. As the mission drags on, that language has been less prevalent. Now the language is about buying time.

Washington has already received some pressure to increase America's commitment. John McCain, voice of the establishment Republican Party on security and defence issues, has urged the president to send ground troops.

If any ground troops go in, they may well have to be American. Turkey has been loathe to get formally involved, even as the militants have been bumping up against its borders. The other Arab states involved in the air campaign have, meanwhile, expressed no willingness to get involved in ground combat.

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A less extreme alternative could be to up arms sales to allies in the region, and expand the level of training.

Some members of the coalition have, to varying degrees, offered to kick weapons to the Kurds and Iraqis. Though, often, those guns have been old and nearly useless. The Kurds have told VICE that the weaponry isn't enough to stop the advance of the caliphate. Others, like Canada, have been loathe to send more firepower to a region where they always seem to end up in the hands of IS. (Also, because Ottawa has no guns left.)

Neither Lunde, Bourgon, nor a spokesperson for Canada's defense minister would indicate whether they have contemplated a change in the game-plan.

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter: @justin_ling

Watch the VICE News Documentary, "The Islamic State."

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