As we alluded to yesterday, the U.S. Department of Defense is sharing targeting data and other intelligence with the French Ministre de la Défense about Daesh targets in Syria.
An official at the Pentagon stated, “We will continue [cooperating] with a combination of coalition targets and specific French requested targets for the foreseeable future…We are having good results.”
In conjunction with the French airstrikes, U.S. Air Force assets deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, pushed south and engaged nearly 120 Daesh fuel trucks and also attacked a fuel farm. Those targets were in Abu Kamal, a city situated along the Euphrates River near Syria’s eastern border with Iraq. Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt IIs took part in the engagement.
Operation Tidal Wave II was launched in an effort to put a damper on the Islamic State’s ability to generate income from oil fields it now controls in Syria. This latest round of strikes kicks the operation into high gear, with previously off-limits targets (the oil convoys themselves and refineries) now fair game.
The Flagship F-15E from the 494 FS, RAF Lakenheath, takes off in full afterburner during an exercise at Nellis Air Force Base. (Photo by Jonathan Derden)
According to officials, leaflets were dropped from Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles to give the drivers to vacate the area, and were followed by kinetic effects from four Hawgs in the form of…well…Brrrrrrrrrrt!! As if that wasn’t enough, two AC-130 gunships were overhead, providing a hail of fire from their devastating array of cannons.
We’re keeping a close eye on this situation as it develops, so please keep FighterSweep close at hand for the latest news coming out of the skies over the Middle East!