U.S. Navy jets begin sorties against IS in Syria from Mediterranean

F/A-18 fighter jets are seen on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, May 5, 2018. Picture taken May 5, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

By Karolina Tagaris

ABOARD USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (Reuters) – A U.S. naval strike force led by aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman began sorties on May 3 against Islamic State in Syria, continuing missions by a U.S.-led coalition against the militants.

The force joined the U.S. Sixth Fleet on April 18, nearly a week after the United States, Britain and France launched air strikes targeting what Western powers said were Syrian chemical weapons installations.

The Navy said it was a scheduled deployment to support coalition partners, NATO allies and U.S. national security interests.

“We commenced combat operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve,” Truman’s commanding officer Captain Nicholas Dienna said, referring to the coalition operation launched in 2014 against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“That operation demonstrates … our resolve to our partners and allies in the region and our continuing fight to eliminate ISIS and their impact to the region,” he said.

Strike fighter squadrons commenced sorties over Syria from the eastern Mediterranean on May 3, the Navy said in a statement.

The most recent aircraft carrier strike group to operate in the sixth fleet was the USS George H.W. Bush which last conducted combat operations from the eastern Mediterranean Sea in July 2017.

The Truman is capable of carrying 90 aircraft, including F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets. It currently has “60 or so” aircraft on board, Truman’s air department officer Commander Steven Djunaedi said.

Several fighter jets were catapulted in sequence on Friday and Saturday from the Truman’s 4.5-acre flight deck and thundered into the sky, a Reuters witness said.

The strike group includes the cruiser USS Normandy and the destroyers Arleigh Burke, Farragut, Forrest Sherman and Bulkeley.

“Our fundamental job, by our presence even alone, is to increase the security and stability here in this part of the world,” Dienna said.

The Nimitz-class carrier was at the center of the U.S. Navy’s strikes against Islamic State in 2016. It returned to its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, after an extended eight-month deployment.

Officials on board would not say how long its latest deployment was expected to last.

“We’ll be here as long as they need us and we’ll move on when they decide we need to go do something else,” the strike group’s commander Rear Admiral Gene Black said.

The United States, Britain and France have all participated in the Syrian conflict, arming rebels, bombing Islamic State fighters and deploying troops on the ground to fight the group.

April’s intervention was the biggest by Western countries against President Bashar Assad and his ally Russia. The countries said the strikes were limited to Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities and not aimed at toppling Assad or intervening in the civil war.

On Friday, the U.S. Navy said it was re-establishing its Second Fleet, responsible for the northern Atlantic Ocean, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Asked to comment on relations with the Russian navy in the Mediterranean, Dienna said: “We’ve had numerous interactions thus far with the Russians across the Mediterranean.

“I have been involved in virtually all of them and every single one of those has been professional, it’s been courteous and it’s been in accordance with international law.”

(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Iraqis make progress in Ramadi, but Islamic State lingers

The Iraqi forces tasked with securing Ramadi and removing any remaining links to the Islamic State insurgency that once controlled the city are encountering improvised explosive devices and evidence of the group’s brutal treatment of civilians, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.

Col. Steve Warren, the spokesperson for the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State, held a news briefing with reporters and provided updates on the campaign’s efforts as it helps the Iraqi military take back the city and takes other actions against the terrorist group.

Iraqi officials announced that the country’s military had raised the flag over a government complex in Ramadi on Dec. 28, some seven months after the Islamic State took control of the capital of Anbar province. The military has spent the ensuing days working to clear the rest of the city, Warren told reporters at the news briefing, but was still encountering some resistance.

Warren said the Iraqis needed to dismantle improvised explosive devices on an “almost house-by-house” basis, and the group was also encountering sniper fire from lingering enemies. Warren said about 60 Islamic State insurgents were killed in the past 24 hours, though multiple groups of up to a dozen fighters remained. He didn’t estimate the total number of fighters left in Ramadi, but said the coalition was helping the Iraqis clear neighborhoods with airstrikes.

As the Iraqi forces moved into smaller neighborhoods, Warren said they came across civilians who had been killed “execution-style,” some who were shot as they tried to flee, others injured by improvised explosive devices and some who the Islamic State used as human shields.

Warren told reporters that many surviving civilians were being taken to stations in the city where they received food, water and healthcare. If they had no place to go, Warren said the civilians were often being relocated to Habbaniyah, where there are camps for displaced people.

Approximately 100 members of the Iraqi military died as they worked to recapture Ramadi, Warren said, adding it was difficult to tell how long it would take for the city to be fully cleared.

The progress in Ramadi is just one small victory in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State, though Warren touted several of the coalition’s recent accomplishments on Wednesday.

Warren wrote on his Twitter page that the Islamic State has lost between 7,700 and 8,500 square miles of territory in Iraq alone, and have not captured any new territory since May. He told the news conference that represented about 40 percent of the territory it once controlled.

The Iraqis still must liberate significant portions of the country that are held by the Islamic State, Warren told reporters, though there wasn’t any indication as to where they would go next.

“Whatever they decide is their next focus, this coalition will be there prepared to support them through the air, as well as with training and equipment,” Warren said during the media briefing.

Warren also told reporters the coalition’s airstrikes killed 2,500 Islamic State fighters last month, but estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 were still operating inside Iraq and Syria.

Warren estimated the Islamic State had not lost as much territory in Syria. He told reporters that the group only lost about 700 square miles in Syria, roughly 10 percent of what it held there.

The colonel also gave an update on the coalition’s campaign against the Islamic State’s oil smuggling, a major source of income for the terrorist organization. He estimated the coalition has reduced the group’s oil revenue by about 30 percent since the campaign began, and said that the Islamic State’s total oil production dropped by about 24 percent to 34,000 barrels every day.

“In addition to chipping away at their so-called caliphate (and) killing their leaders, we’re also hitting them in the pocketbook,” Warren told reporters.

Coalition Kills ISIS Leader With Alleged Ties to Paris Mastermind

An Islamic State official with close ties to the leader of the Paris terrorist attacks was killed, a spokesman for the United States-led coalition against the terrorist organization said Tuesday.

Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, wrote on his verified Twitter account that Charaffe al Mouadan died on Dec. 24. Warren wrote Mouadan, who was based in Syria, had “a direct link” to Adbelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of last month’s deadly attacks.

Warren said al Mouadan “was actively planning attacks against the west,” but did not elaborate.

The Islamic State has said it was responsible for executing the Nov. 13 attacks, during which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people at various locations throughout Paris.

Authorities are still searching for accomplices, and several countries have ramped up their military operations in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to shut down the terrorist organization.

Al Mouadan was one of 10 Islamic State leaders that coalition airstrikes killed in the past month, Warren told reporters at a news briefing. He said several of those killed were planning attacks.

“As long as ISIL external attack planners are operating, the U.S. Military will hunt them and kill them,” Warren wrote on his Twitter page, using a different name for the terrorist organization.