The 4 Rifles sniper: ‘I would go to Mosul tomorrow.’ Photograph: Jamie Wiseman/The Daily Mail
The Guardian: Britain's most experienced sniper tells of his frustration in Iraq
Soldier training Iraqi army in remote base says he would love to help fight against Isis in Mosul but has not been allowed out.
One of the most experienced snipers in the British army, who is currently based in Iraq, says he has not been allowed beyond the perimeter fence of Camp al-Asad, a remote, highly fortified base in the desert of Anbar province.
The soldier, one of a few hundred British special forces in the country, told reporters that he “would love to go out”. “I would go to Mosul tomorrow,” he said, but added that he had been told to help train Iraqi soldiers instead.
Part of a 500-strong British contingent in Iraq, the sniper’s confinement to camp is partly down to the risk-averse mood of the UK parliament – and the British public – following hundreds of personnel deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the MoD never comments on special forces, a few are engaged near the frontline in the fight to retake Mosul from Islamic State (Isis), but the bulk are engaged in training either the Iraqi army or the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga.
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WNU Editor: This is not our fight .... it is best to stick to what is being done now .... providing assistance. But bottom line .... the Iraqis need to sort this out amongst themselves.
"This is not our fight." Agreed.
ReplyDelete"It is best to stick with what is being done now. Providing assistance." Very respectfully this is not what we need to be doing. The British soldier along with all US personnel need to be redeployed away from Iraq forthwith and without delay.
"The Iraqis need to sort this out amongst themselves." Agreed and the longer American and "allied" forces remain in the country the harder this is going to be. Get our people out now!!
From a US standpoint, it's no wonder our guys on the ground "training" rebel forces are sabotaging the training of future jihadis. This quagmire has gone on for so long because of a policy via the obama admin that doesn't desire victory at all costs, that could care less about stopping Islamic terror than it desires to appease it and equip it in the future conflicts with the west. The reason why our military and most likely other allied military efforts have been weakened is due to the rampant buerocractic shit storm that has tied the hands of war fighters to the point of not being allowed to hunt ied planting teams at night, literally watching terrorists plant ied's right in front of them but not being authorized by politicians afraid of offending the indigenous population or creating to large of a "footprint".....
ReplyDeletehttps://sofrep.com/63764/us-special-forces-sabotage-white-house-policy-gone-disastrously-wrong-with-covert-ops-in-syria/
Good link
ReplyDeleteI stopped going to SOFREP after they put up the paywall.