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Breaking: France Launches Airstrikes against ISIS Capital of Raqqa
Rumors have been floating on social media for the past hour, but France has now confirmed the attack:
Published in Foreign PolicyFrance has launched a series of airstrikes on an ISIS stronghold in Syria, the French Defense Ministry told The Associated Press on Sunday.
It comes after ISIS claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated terror attacks that left 129 people dead and injured 352 more in six locations throughout Paris on Friday.
Sunday’s strikes targeted the ISIS-held city of Raqqa in Syria, The Associated Press reports.
French officials told the Associated Press 10 fighter jets dropped 20 bombs, striking an ISIS command and control center, jihadi recruitment center, a munitions depot and a training camp.
Gentlemen and Ladies,
I think the Charles de Gaulle is sailing East in the Mediterranean.
https://youtu.be/ANq6p4Dj0Cc
Now if the Turkish Army would be interested in attacking Raqqa from the West as the Kurds attack from the East we might get somewhere.
Regards,
Jim
I think we should bury any dead we get smeared in pork fat. And take pictures and advertise what we are doing.
As ISIS attacks ramp up with the help of all the Jihadi manpower eagerly imported by the Political Elites, we might not be so far away from an over whelming demand for this solution.
Or. . .we could simply occupy the territory. Annex it as a new U.S. territory, or a new French one, or German, or whatever. I rather like the imperialist response in situations like these.
I lost a handful of friends a decade ago when I suggested (ok hectored) that we should have lit a nuke on torra bora and killed maybe 5000 innocents (and goats) while eliminating most of al Qaeda. Film the whole thing, take over the Middle East sat channels and run the footage 24/7 to show the Islamic world what comes of collaboration. If it worked, it would have saved many civilian and US military lives.
Careful. Think twice on that stuff.
Are we fighting Da-esh (Islamic State), or are we starting a fight with the entire Islamic world?
I strongly prefer the former, and to keep it that way will take careful attention to messaging and P.R. as well as to intelligence and military action. This is no time for cowboy swagger.
That guy who lives in the White House wants to fight ISIS with an army of lawyers in Manhattan Federal Court (he said they will be “brought to justice”). He’s the what? in chief?
Americans are horrible imperialists, we simply are not competent in this domain.
The United States is not the British Empire, we lack the culture the institutions even the mere confidence as a Western civilization for such an endeavour. It would not work.
Just like Peter Quinn said: Press reset, turn Raqqa into a parking lot.
Nuke ’em from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
I’m sorry, but this will be a short campaign the accomplishes little or nothing. It’s politically necessary, but France has neither the resources nor resolve to do anything serious against ISIS. At this point, I’m wondering how the military budgets of France and ISIS compare…
French use probe and drogue like the U.S. Navy. The majority (all?) of USAF KC-135’s are W.A.R.P. equipped and the KC-10’s have boom and basket capability as well as W.A.R.P.
We could support the French seamlessly, both their land and naval tactical aircraft.
What are they doing about ISIS inside France? The guys in Raqqa may have supported the terrorists, but the immediate threat is still in France, not the Syrian desert.
Apparently, France is importing a couple hundred thousand more young Islamic males, they must have a well rehearsed plan.
Back in the old days, the Navy just parked next to where the targets were, it was a pretty good plan. When the Navy was out and about, the Air Force just stayed out of their way.
Does Vichy France count?
They keep referring to this air strike as “massive.” Ten planes. Twenty bombs. The second raid on Schweinfurt it ain’t.
Right now, bombing Schweinfurt might kill more ISIS members than bombing Raqqah.
We have our success stories, though, like the territories, post-World War II Germany and Japan, etc. The U.S. used to be a pretty successful imperial power back in the 19th century. Even with our failures in the 20th, we still managed to engineer the present world order.
This is part of the abstract from a Rand Corporation study of the French experience in Mali:
“French Army operations in Mali (Operation Serval) in 2013 provide a model for designing and operating an expeditionary force, one that has a number of attributes and competencies that United States Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno has indicated to be requirements for the Army… As France’s War in Mali: Lessons for an Expeditionary Army details, the French in Serval demonstrated that they are adept at quickly fielding small yet highly capable forces tailored for specific needs and objectives and reiteratively task organizing as the situation evolves. They have done so in part by pushing modularity below the battalion level, enabling them to disaggregate and reaggregate elements of their brigades. The French have also invested in technologies and vehicles designed to enhance the capabilities of its units at all echelons. Moreover, the French Army, particularly its expeditionary brigades, is for all intents and purposes a regionally aligned force that has a demonstrated ability to leverage its area-specific expertise to compensate for its small size and to work effectively with and among local populations. The French Army also appears to have an operational culture well suited for expeditionary warfare, particularly in austere environments and with limited resources. The aspects of French Army operations in Mali discussed in this report make the French Army a model for building the kind of expeditionary force envisioned by Odierno…”
I was thinking of using USN carrier-based tankers, since as you’ve noted, sailors still haven’t figured out how to fly the boom to the receivers, like the USAF does so easily. [g]
A back-of-the-envelope map study though, suggests that, at least for the Rafales, there’d likely need to be two tanks over the Med, both going and coming, for a Metropolitan France mission.
On a related note, regarding the paucity of French ground attack sorties against Raqqa, as the dozen sorties are held to be, does anyone know how many French combat aircraft are stationed in the UAE and Qatar, where that dozen were launched from? It’s also useful to recall that, at least for those Rafales again, Raqqa is at the outer reach of their combat radius when they launch from the UAE and Qatar.
Eric Hines
That’s why invoking Article 5 is important to obtain use of Turkish bases and possibly RAF Akrotiri.
I guess that Israel and Jordan would also let them use bases.
Yeah, someone suggested that earlier in the thread.
Eric Hines
Just a light dusting. What we really need is a few B-52 Arclight missions…
Kozak,
Yep, good idea Kozak. I think the B-52 fleet needs some target practice. If we can just get ISIS to mass for an attack then we can expect maximum ISIS casualties and minimum collateral damage.
This is how the ground game and the air game complement each other. The ground game draws them out into a concentrated formation. Then the air game destroys them with zest.
Regards,
Jim
Hi, I’m here to rearrange your landscape….how do you feel about holes?
Right. The Iliad’s lesson about hubris–understood by the Greeks as wanton violence–is still relevant today.
I am not sure who the enemy is, but I know that when in a war, you destroy not only the people fighting, but those who support them.
Oooh – that would give other signatories of the Non proliferation treaty the perfect excuse to nuke us back – or enter a wider war against the US – because that is what is required when a nuclear armed state attacks a non-nuclear armed state with nukes.
Really? Please.