Operation Featherweight: Month 2, Week 5, Day 2.

The US Department of Defence (DoD) have recently set up a special section on their website dedicated to the operation in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State of the Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This site features interactive maps, photo-galleries, gun-cam videos, speeches and press releases. Buried in amongst all that it also, periodically, provides information about the number and type of air-strikes the US and other coalition partners have been carrying out in Iraq and Syria.

Despite this shiny new website the US still hasn't set up a unified command and control structure for the coalition nor have they drawn up a strategy to achieve their stated objective of degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL. From the website though it appears that since Thursday (2/10/14) the US-led coalition has been continuing to carry out seemingly random low intensity, pin-prick strikes against targets in both Syria and Iraq.

On Friday (3/10/14), Saturday (4/10/14) and Sunday (5/10/14) ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria which is around 90km (54 miles) south of the border with Turkey and 240km (144 miles) west of the border with Iraq was struck 6 times. The targets struck 2 modular oil refineries and an ISIL training camp which was reportedly empty at the time alongside Taqba airfield, an ISIL ground unit and 7 ISIL firing positions/artillery pieces.

On Friday and Saturday Dayr Az Zawr which is around 140km (84 miles) south-east of Raqqa along the Euphrates River was struck 3 times. The targets here included 3 ISIL tanks and 1 unarmed vehicles. Also on Friday and Saturday Al Hasakah which is around 200km (120 miles) north-east of Raqqa and 70km (42 miles) west of the border with Iraq was struck twice destroying an ISIL garrison and logistics depot.

Finally a single strike Friday on Aleppo which is around 250km (150 miles) west of Raqqa and largely under the control of the Syrian government destroyed a building occupied by ISIL while a single strike Sunday on Al Mayadin which is around 50km (30 miles) south-east of Dayr Az Zawr on the Euphrates River destroyed and ISIL bulldozer, 2 ISIL tanks and a further unarmed vehicle.

In Iraq the area around Fallujah which is around 50km (30 miles) west of the capital Baghdad was struck 8 times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These strikes mainly targeted ISIL ground units destroying 1 large and 4 small. They also struck 1 unarmed ISIL vehicle and 2 ISIL mortar teams. On Saturday a single strike destroyed an ISIL tank close to Ramadi which is around 55km (33 miles) west of Fallujah and on Saturday and Sunday 2 strikes also occurred close to Hit which is around 55km (33 miles) north-west of Ramadi also in Anbar province. The strikes close to Hit destroyed 4 ISIL Humvees and were carried out in part by helicopter gunships indicating that they were part of a close air-support mission intended to prevent an ISIL advance.

Finally on Friday a strike close to Sinjar which is the north-western border region close to Syria destroyed 2 armed "Technical" trucks. This was followed up on Saturday by a strike which destroyed an ISIL Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) close to the border town of Rabia which is around 120km (72miles) from Mosul and was liberated by Kurdish Peshmerga forces last Tuesday (30/9/14). There was a further strike in the Sinjar region on Sunday that destroyed an ISIL Humvee.

Although it's not mentioned by the US DoD it has also been confirmed that on Sunday Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out a single strike on a fortified building near Ramadi that was being used by ISIL as a firing position to attack Iraqi forces. Australia's Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also carried out its first armed patrol over northern Iraq on Sunday but did not engage any targets.

One area where coalition air-strikes have been noticeable by their absence has been the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane/Ayn al-Arab which is around 140km (84miles) north Raqqa and just 1km (0.6miles) from the border with Turkey. As I seem to find myself writing in every post Kobane is of massive strategic importance because if it were to fall it would hand ISIL a massive propaganda victory and provide them with a practical victory by making it easier for them to smuggle oil out of and weapons and fighters into Syria. It would also put the predominately Kurdish refugees who have sought shelter there from across both Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan at great risk of extermination and other inhuman and degrading practises that are routinely carried out by ISIL.

The ISIL advance on Kobane began on September 16th (16/9/14) and on Friday (3/10/14) they succeeded in entering the south-eastern section of the city only to be pushed out by the Kurdish fighters defending the town. In response ISIL have been subjecting Kobane to 2 days of constant shelling and mortar fire intended to degrade the defences. On Sunday they took control of a hill over looking the city giving them a better position to fire on it. Today it seems that ISIL have once again entered Kobane and succeeded in raising their flag above a number of buildings in the eastern sector making it extremely likely that the city's fall has begun. Although they will have to worry about committing fresh resources Kobane's Kurdish defenders are likely to fight for every last millimetre of the city though. For example in Sunday's battle for the hill a female commander of one of the Kurdish units realised that her position was about to be over-run by ISIL fighters. Her final act was to detonate the grenades she was carrying killing herself and several ISIL fighters.

Despite this undeniable courage and seemingly unshakable commitment to defend this strategically important city to the last Kurdish fighters have received next to no support from the coalition who seem intent of letting Kobane fall into ISIL hands. On Saturday the US did carry out 4 strikes close to Kobane which struck 2 unarmed vehicles, an ISIL APC, 3 artillery positions, an ISIL controlled building and 2 ground units - 1 large and 1 small. However this seems to have been little more then a box ticking exercise so the coalition can claim that it is trying to defend Kobane without actually defending it. For example there were absolutely no follow up strikes on Sunday even after it had become clear that Saturday's strike were not sufficient and ISIL had seized control of the hill.

The reason why the coalition seems so happy to abandon Kobane is that it appears that Turkey has done a deal with ISIL. In return for ISIL releasing 46 Turkish hostages on September 20th (20/9/14) Turkey will refuse to take military action against ISIL giving them time to wipe out Syria's Kurds whom Turkey have been waging war against for the past 30 years. Then once the Kurds have been exterminated Turkey will use Kobane as an excuse to send ground troops into Syria who will team up with ISIL to overthrow the Syrian government. Turkey also appears have have agreed to free hundreds of ISIL prisoners in an effort to disguise the true nature of the deal. That is why details of the prisoner swap have suddenly been 'leaked' just as the battle for Kobane seems to have entered its final stages.

Quite why the US is prepared to go along with Turkey's dirty deal remains a bit of a mystery to me because Turkey certainly lacks the economic clout with which to give the US orders and there doesn't seem to be any attempts by the US to encourage Turkey to give permission for United States Air Force (USAF) base Incirlik in Turkey to be used in the fight against ISIL. As such I can only conclude that US President Barack Obama simply lacks the strength of character to say no to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Friday ISIL carried out the beheading of British hostage Alan Henning who'd they'd been holding captive since December 26th 2013 (26/12/13). Although it's clear they want the opportunity to fight coalition ground troops rather then aircraft that they have no defence against as with the previous murder of David Haines I think it is all too easy to read too much into ISIL's motives. After all I've heard about 3 more ISIL beheadings since Henning's death because this is just what ISIL do. It is terrorism in it's purest form - they simply carry out these horrific murders in order to terrify people defending areas they want to attack into fleeing in fear.

The death of Mr Henning though has sent shockwaves of a different kind through the British Establishment. Henning was kidnapped within 30 minutes of crossing into Syria as part of an 'aid convoy' organised by CAGE UK which is a government funded 'charity' set up to help people accused of Islamic terrorism related offences including former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg. As such it seems extremely likely that Henning was set up by the UK intelligence services to be taken hostage by ISIL. That way the UK use negotiations over his release to open a channel of communication with ISIL to better direct their efforts to overthrow the Syrian government. To throw off any prying eyes Henning resembles Alex Salmond who of course led the recent Yes campaign in the Scottish independence referendum. Also the way that he was portrayed as sensitive older man who was constantly shown surrounded by fit, young men could have led some people to (wrongly) suggest that he was secretly gay which given his wife and children alongside Islam's stance against homosexuality is a spectacularly complicated discussion.

The realisation that the UK can't control groups like ISIL and that they will kill hostages has sent the UK into a bit of a panic. So on Saturday the police suddenly discovered a body believed to be Arnis Zalkalns who is suspected of killing Alice Gross in the run up to the recent North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Summit in Wales, UK. This brings a swift end to a sensitive story because NATO Summits happen twice a year, every year but it is only when they're hosted in the UK that they seem to end up with a death toll. Then on Sunday a ransom was paid to free Briton David Bolam who was being held hostage in Libya. Although it is spelt entirely differently David Bolam's name seems to be pronounced to sound similar to "David Bowden" who is a senior reporter for Britain's Sky News. It is also unclear if the "Army of Islam" group who kidnapped Mr Bolam is the same Army of Islam who kidnapped BBC News reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza, Palestine in 2007. 

It has also emerged that Morocco has jailed an older British man for 4 months on charges of homosexuality. Although I'm not totally familar with the case it appears that the man was married and had children suggesting that he had lived a secret gay life much like we're supposed to believe Alan Henning did. Morocco like most of the Middle-East, North-Africa (MENA) nations is of course very worried about what ISIL are up to.

(Originally Posted) 16:50 on 6/10/14 (UK date).