Small Wars Journal

Anti-IS Forces Advance on Iraq, Syria Militant Strongholds

Tue, 05/31/2016 - 2:55pm

Anti-IS Forces Advance on Iraq, Syria Militant Strongholds

Sharon Behn

Voice of America

Islamic State has come under fierce attack on three fronts stretching from Iraq to Syria.

Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces on Monday entered the IS stronghold of Fallujah, a city in central Iraq that the extremists have controlled for more than two years.

An array of Iraqi security forces, including the army and Shi’ite militias have surrounded the city, further squeezing a siege cordon put in place six months ago.

Overhead, U.S. airstrikes hit two IS tactical units, destroyed two IS fighting positions, two tunnel entrances, three foot bridges and denied the group access to further terrain.

​​Human Shields

Families escaping Fallujah say that civilians are being used as human shields in the fighting and that IS is threatening those who try to leave.

“My nephew is there, and he says there are attacks by mortars and heavy weapons, and he is hiding in his house,” said one man who fled from Fallujah earlier and gave his name to VOA as Jabar Odaa.

The fight for the traditionally Sunni city of Fallujah is expected to be a difficult one, with hard urban battles and potentially high casualties.

IS militants are well entrenched in the city and many believe if Iraqi forces manage to take the city it will be a significant defeat for extremist group.

Fallujah holds hard memories for the U.S. military, which suffered hard losses in its operations to try to wrest control of the city from IS' predecessor, al Qaida, in 2004.

​​Losing Control

IS has steadily been losing control of territory it captured in 2014 and anti-IS forces appear to be capitalizing on that.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga forces, reportedly accompanied by coalition forces, stormed eight villages east of IS-controlled Mosul and pushed the militants back by 23 kilometers to a new frontline less than 10 kilometers from the city.

Brig Gen. Kurdo Zebari told VOA it had been a hard fight, but a successful one. “Hopefully soon it will be Mosul,” he said.

Mosul would be the last IS stronghold inside Iraq after Ramadi and Fallujah. Ramadi fell to Iraqi forces in February after fierce fighting leveled much of the city.

“Yesterday there were 10 suicide vehicles, five of them were killed by airstrikes and five were blown up by the peshmerga,” Zebari said in a telephone interview from the Kurdish frontline.

​​Underground Defenses

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Monday that airstrikes near Mosul had destroyed a total of seven vehicle-borne IEDs, hit three IS tactical units, a weapons storage center, destroyed three IS fighting positions, five IS “command and control nodes”, seven weapons caches, artillery pieces, mortar positions, and damaged an anti-air artillery piece.

On the ground, Zebari said a tour of one of the villages showed what has become a signature IS tactic: complex underground defenses.

“I personally took pictures of the bunkers and tunnels. It was a like a house, a tunnel with four bedrooms,” he said.

Zebari said all the IS fighters had been killed after they refused to give themselves up.

"There is nobody left - they are either dead or gone," he said, but added that IS had left behind bombs in houses and on the roads.

The peshmerga offensive comes on the heels of an Iraqi army push from the south towards Mosul, an assault that appeared to falter after strong push back from the IS militants.

​​Syria

In Syria, U.S.-backed rebel forces and Russian-led Syrian forces started to converge on the edges of the IS “capital” of Raqqa, as Turkish warplanes pounded the Islamic State group in the countryside north of Aleppo.

In Syria, U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces are continuing to press IS-controlled villages 50 kilometers north of Raqqa, the IS de facto capital, in Syria. IS is also coming under pressure west of Raqqa from Russian-backed Syrian regime forces consisting mainly of Iranian and Lebanese Shi'ite fighters. Turkish warplanes and artillery pounded IS positions in the countryside northeast of Aleppo in retaliation for rocket attacks last week by the jihadists on Turkish territory.

But in a showcase of its resilience, the Islamic State group mounted a fierce offensive on Marea and Asaz, two key border towns with Turkey, threatening rebel resupplies.

Analysts have warned that as Islamic State loses its so-called caliphate territory, it could revert back to the guerrilla-style warfare it excels in.

TRADOC G-2 Call for Papers: Strategic Security Environment 2050

Tue, 05/31/2016 - 2:18pm

                                                                                                                    16 May 16   

INFORMATION PAPER

SUBJECT:  Mad Scientist Conference: Strategic Security Environment 2050

1.  Purpose.  To provide information on the upcoming Mad Scientist Conference to be held at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, Washington DC from 8-9 August 2016, with a specific focus on the Strategic Security Environment in 2050.

2.  Facts. 

     a. Mad Scientist is a TRADOC G-2 initiative that enables continuous dialogue between Joint military, international partners, academia, policy institutions, and private sector organizations to help the Army explore the evolution of the Operational Environment (OE) through the year 2050.  Mad Scientist also seeks to examine the effects of all aspects of technology on the far future of armed conflict. 

     b. Mad Scientist allows for continuously learning, adaptation, and innovation and allows for broader engagement in problem solving.  Mad Scientist supports understanding the future OE and the underlying technology evolution to support the Campaign of Learning, 2025 Maneuvers, science and technology (S&T) investments, and capability development for the Army.

     c. For this specific event, Mad Scientist is the vehicle for describing war in 2050.  The critical notion is that we will move forward to 2050 and look back to explore: 1) the form(s) of governance that may have emerged, as well as the causes of war over history brought forward and set in 2050; and 2) the underlying logic at "turning points" in the character of war.  As such, F2025 becomes a way point on the way to 2050. 

     d. Mad Scientist embraces open discourse, and embraces a desire for a clean slate approach to problem solving with no pre-conceptions, no attempts to justify programs or budgets.

    e. The strategic environment is defined as the set of global conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of all elements of US national power.  The strategic environment is essentially the sum of all of the OEs in which the commanders and units could find themselves conducting decisive action. 

     f. The strategic environment estimate serves as the foundation for training, leader development, education and capabilities development.  The conditions of the strategic environment must be understood, captured and factored into Army decision-making.  Only then can realistic training, a balanced mix of systems and capabilities, and appropriate approaches to leader development an education be identified and implemented across TRADOC and the Army writ large. 

     g. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), in partnership with the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group, and Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies,will address the following questions in order to further our understanding and create a shared understanding of the future strategic security environment.

            (1) Fundamental changes in demographics, economics, and geopolitical conditions that will radically change the conduct of military operations.  What changes in the strategic environment are harbingers of future conflict?  What are the drivers of change?  What investments must the Army make to enable our future critical role in establishing stable environments to consolidate gains, control narratives, and achieve sustainable outcomes?   

           (2) Fundamental changes in the character of war and warfighting technologies that will radically change the conduct of military operations.  How are our adversaries of the future learning, adapting and adjusting behaviors to deny US advantage in warfare?  How will adversaries of the future exploit all aspects of the strategic environment to their advantage?  How will future adversaries invest in technologies to obtain a differential advantage and undermine U.S. technical superiority?

    h. If you cannot physically attend the conference, we invite you to join us remotely on the TRADOC Watch website at:  www.tradoc.army.mil/watch

     i. Remote attendees will also be able to participate in the discussions via an online chat room and will be provided an opportunity to provide questions that will be proposed to conference speakers.

    j. Please join the All Partners Access Network (APAN) to receive updates on the conference, to include list of speakers, agenda, and related information at: https://community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/mad-scientist/