Islamic State fighters and their families as they departed the Lebanon-Syria border zone Aug. 28. Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
Stars and Stripes: US warplanes pick off ISIS fighters drawn to stranded convoy ‘like moths to the flame’
IRBIL, Iraq — An attempt by Islamic State to evacuate hundreds of fighters from western Syria to the Iraqi border has instead left them sitting ducks for aerial attacks by the U.S.-led coalition on the convoy.
“We were able to exploit it and take advantage,” Army Col. Ryan S. Dillon, a coalition spokesman, said of the ISIS maneuver Thursday morning as 11 buses full of ISIS fighters and civilians remained stranded in the Syrian desert.
U.S. warplanes continue to pick off militants who stray too far from the protection of the convoy’s women and children, officials said. Strikes have also destroyed militant vehicles coming to the area from ISIS-held territory.
“Like moths to the flame,” more than 40 vehicles have come to try to aid the convoy, including armored technical vehicles and a tank disguised as a truck, Dillon said. “We were able to continue to just observe and pick them off one at a time.”
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Update: 'Like moths to a flame': US-led coalition leave over 300 ISIS fighters stranded in the desert, using them as bait to target jihadists as they attempted to rescue stranded convoy (Daily Mail)
WNU Editor: What I find interesting about this story is that the biggest complaints on what the U.S. is doing is coming from Hezbollah .... No Relief for Islamic State Convoy Blocked in Syria (New York Times).
6 comments:
A year ago they would have already been headed to Michigan (sarcasm)...
The bleeding heart liberals will jump in at any moment and demand that the Red Cross be sent in to evacuate the 'children'...
Political optics are preventing a single B-52 sortie. So we put our airmen at risk with this drawn out waiting game.
@Anonymous
Don't know where his comment went - maybe he deleted it or it got deleted, but either way, this is directed at you Anonymous.
First of, the parents are the ones to blame. They've chosen to use their children as shields. They were deliberately brought along for that reason alone.
Do you think sending in an aid/military convoy is going to help? Do you think they will willingly give up their shields, cause they know soon as they do, that's it over for them. They'll take more hostages.
So what is your method then? Let them starve? O yes, that won't be more painful will it...
Best way to deal with that situation is to take out armed resistance as much as possible and move in. There may be valuable intel in those convoys, plus, then the children, if there is any at all, can be extracted.
But it seems you'd rather send in a convoy of Red Cross trucks lol!
D. Plowman,
I accidentally deleted Anon's comment and forgot about re-posting it until now. So his response to you was this (he is not polite) ....
Bleeding heart liberal here: actually the children should not and will not be targeted for killing. F u plowman for even suggesting we should do that. Imagine you're like 6 years old and your dad is a murderer - it's not your fault you pr*ck.
Bleeding heart liberal enough?
Haha I'm polite to people who don't suggest the targeted killing of children. Sorry, wnu :)
But now that you have clarified your remark, plowman, it seems you would be for extracting the children after all. You sissy ;-) just kidding
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