Islamic State fighters parade on military vehicles along the streets of a northern Raqqa province in Syria. (Reuters)
McClatchy News: Video of Islamic State capabilities impresses military experts
IRBIL, Iraq — The video opens with high-definition footage shot from a drone flying over an oil refinery in central Iraq, but this video isn’t from a multi-million-dollar American drone. It’s from a drone operated by the Islamic State that likely cost a few thousand dollars. And the refinery – Iraq’s largest – is held by government forces, who have been besieged by the militants for the better part of a year.
The video, called “Defiant Attack on the Apostates at the Refinery,” began appearing on jihadist-linked websites and Twitter accounts last week. It heralded an Islamic State assault on the oil refinery at Baiji, where Iraqi government soldiers have held out since last summer against surrounding Islamic State troops. In the end, the government kept hold of the refinery, the country’s largest, with the help of 47 airstrikes by the United States and a massive influx of Iraqi reinforcements.
WNU Editor: The video is here .... and it is professionally done .... and it does give me pause.
6 comments:
Military experts should be impressed. ISIS has captured territory at a faster rate and has been more effective at holding on to it than the American military could have done before it was worn down from fruitless nation building operations and if it had the full support of the political leadership.
I'm pleased to see the "experts" are finally beginning to figure this out even if it is a bit late. Perhaps with proper threat analysis we can begin to devise a workable solution to the problem.
not really, they took Raqqa from the Syrians weakened by years of civil war and Mosul from an inept and corrupt Iraqi army. they also initially defeated Arab tribes and Kurdish militias although both were very lightly armed.
The Islamic State are dangerous by regional standards for sure, they are capable of fighting open battles, urban campaigns, using guerilla tactics, suicide operations...
Holding territory is a lot easier when you are prepared to massacre anyone who resists in a medieval fashion, especially regions that are sparsely populated and already war-weary.
"Holding territory is a lot easier when you are prepared to massacre anyone who resists in a medieval fashion, especially regions that are sparsely populated and already war-weary."
BINGO
We assume that armies and nations will always apply Geneva conventions or modern western standards..
People are always opining that this or that nation of region is the graveyards of empires. It is all a matter of what you are willing to do.
I am not advocating massacre. I am just pointing out that to others to play by Marquess of Queensbury rules is naive.
I running out of characters so will post in two part:
I'm not impressed, but I'm not a military expert. It's hard to describe and state how well trained IS units are. The problem with propaganda videos like the this one, that you can question how real it is. We all seen similar propaganda videos from every county, whoever want to promote their forces. Even the ongoing conflicts has this aspect, see Ukraine or Syria for similar videos. Even if we say every IS soldier traied this "well", what this supposed to mean? This is a standard, not a great quality exection. However the standard fail in 80-90% of the Armed Forces (include NATO members), but just because others bad at something it's not make us an expert of that thing. Everything depend on where from and how you view it. There are clearly no battle videos from IS's view, actually there was one from 2014, it's a part of the video "Clanging the Swords" (watch it if you used to see executions), but nothing more.
The experts mention the difference between the Iraqian Army's and IS's soldiers and fighters, but the comparison cannot be perfect. Training is a key, thats true but there usable live reource is another. Most of the armies and militia has the same quality problem, which is that those who join are mostly lack on skill, knowladge, motivation and will. The organisation and trainign problems which occured in the Iraqian Army and the related militias just top this all. In the other hand there are two type of IS fighter, the one who not fear to die (thats why they joined) and want everything, and the other who are joining for some other reason, like money, family's safety or fear. It's clear that IS got an advantage on the living resource, but this not directly their own success. In the battle (if we can call the above video a battle video) IS forces more likely stand the ground than Iraqian Army soldiers, but I seen IS fighters running for their lives. There is a related saing, "Having a soldier who run away from the battle is worst than not having a soldier."
//To the above:
The article mention things like soldiers carry water (?!) with themself, which supposed to show how well trained they are. When you fighting in a desert you quickly learn the importance of water and to carry enough. Having a Quadcopter is also not a huge thing, you can buy one from the net for easy money. The fact they use it is good, but the requirements for this is minamal, while easy to handle them. The use of advance camoflage and "truck launcher" are good. Hezbollah commander can mention they were the ones who invented this "method" but wars do not care about who invented what, only the use matter. Also the truck had 3 launcher tubes on it (a BM21 Grad have 40). The effectivity of the example truck launcher is bad. There is a single launcher tube for Grad rockets which can be carried even with infantry, has the size of a heavy machinegun or recoilles rifle and almost have the same firing rate as this vehicle. This truck lost the advantage of the real mobile rocket artillery, while earned it's disadvantage, it's size. I like the general idea, but the realisation is bad.
We living in a world where you can find every information, from the very basics of military to complex CnC element of the wars. IS adapting but not as much as they could. In comparison with other conflicts they are good, but in Ukraine separatist doing better than IS. And last, IS totally show how well they adapt to warfare, it's same as other rebels in ME. Surely they have some advanced knowladge, communication and command, recruiting, general equipment support, but they lack on other also very aspects, like the wasting of equipment and resources. It's clearly something that I cannot understand why there is this mindless destroying of everything. This has a very negative effect on IS's forces yet they still do not change on it. And at here I know there were report that IS could not operate an M1 Abrams, but they keep burning every other vehicles too, BTRs, HMMWVs, M113s and so on. I would argue on which harder to run a BTR or an oil refinery.
Thank you for input mlacix. I am personally not impressed with many of these Islamic State fighters .... but I give them credit for motivation .... they are definitely more willing to fight and die for their cause than the other side.
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