Tag: combat
U.S. Says ‘Close Combat Advisors’ Could Battle Jihadists

U.S. Says ‘Close Combat Advisors’ Could Battle Jihadists

Washington (AFP) — The United States plans to strike the Islamic State group in its Syrian strongholds and could send military advisers into combat alongside Iraqi troops, American commanders said Tuesday.

Military leaders warned of a further escalation in their battle against the jihadists just as two branches of the rival Al-Qaeda group called for a united front against the war coalition Washington is building.

U.S. warplanes have been targeting IS jihadists in northern Iraq since August 8, and in recent days hit the militants southwest of Baghdad for the first time, in a significant expansion of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told U.S. lawmakers that plans are being laid to hit targets in Syria, where the IS group is holding hostages and has a stronghold in the city of Raqa.

“This plan includes targeted actions against ISIL safe havens in Syria, including its command and control, logistics capabilities, and infrastructure,” Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

But the U.S. military’s top-ranking officer, General Martin Dempsey, told the same hearing the bombing would not match the huge raids that accompanied the start of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

– ‘Close combat advising’ –

“This will not look like ‘shock and awe’ because that is not how ISIL is organized, but it will be persistent and sustainable,” Dempsey said, using the term Washington used for its 2003 bombardment.

Dempsey also went further than any U.S. official has gone before in admitting that the military advisers that President Barack Obama has dispatched to bolster Iraqi forces could get involved in combat.

Obama’s administration has insisted that his action against the IS extremists is not the start of another U.S. ground war in the Middle East, and that there will be no large-scale American invasion.

But nearly 300 U.S. military advisers are already working with Iraqi government forces, 300 more are on their way and Dempsey refused to rule out their providing “close combat advising.”

“To be clear, if we reach the point where I believe our advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL targets, I will recommend that to the president,” Dempsey said.

Dempsey said the advisers are “very much in a combat advisory role” and that there is “no intention” at the moment for them to engage in combat: “I don’t see it to be necessary right now.”

But he said if there were an “extraordinarily complex” operation planned by Iraqi forces — such as a bid to recapture the rebel-held city of Mosul — then advisers could head to the front.

Dempsey said any use of U.S. troops in the field would be approved by Obama, explaining: “He told me to come back to him on a case-by-case basis.”

Obama has vowed to expand American efforts and U.S. diplomats are scrambling to put together an international coalition for a “relentless” campaign against the jihadists.

The slow coming together of this alliance drew a fierce reaction from Al-Qaeda’s branches in Yemen and in North Africa, who said jihadist forces must also unite against the common threat.

In a joint statement, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) urged their “brothers” in Iraq and Syria to “stop killing each other and unite against the American campaign and its evil coalition that threatens us all.”

The Islamic State group began as a successor to Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch, but has escaped from the group’s shadow and clashed with its surrogates in Syria, while claiming leadership of global jihad.

– Murdered on camera –

The U.S. strikes against IS fighters in the Sadr al-Yusufiyah area, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Baghdad, was the first in support of Iraqi forces near the capital.

They bring the number of U.S. air strikes across Iraq to 162. The CIA estimates that the Islamic State organization may be able to field as many as 31,500 fighters — many of them foreign volunteers.

Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta welcomed the expanded American action, saying the U.S. “carried out an important strike against an enemy target in Sadr al-Yusufiyah.”

Sadr al-Yusufiyah lies in the Euphrates Valley, between the militant stronghold of Fallujah and the key battleground of Jurf al-Sakhr, further south. It is one of the closest front lines to Baghdad.

IS militants have seized a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring an Islamic “caliphate”, committing widespread atrocities and instituting a brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

Western nations and 10 Arab countries, including regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have agreed to back the US-led campaign, but not all will engage in military action.

Over the weekend, IS militants further upped the stakes in their battle with the West, murdering a British aid worker — the third Western hostage to be executed on camera.

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb

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U.S. Army Invites Women To Try Out For Elite Ranger School

U.S. Army Invites Women To Try Out For Elite Ranger School

Washington (AFP) — The U.S. Army is inviting female soldiers to apply to the grueling Ranger school, officials said Monday, part of the military’s effort to open the door to women serving in ground combat.

The prestigious Ranger school has been closed to women until now.

But the army wants to study the possibility of introducing female troops, officials said, reflecting new rules in the U.S. military designed to permit women to work in more jobs closer to front lines.

To perform a one-time assessment, the army has put out a call for female volunteers who — if the plan goes ahead — would enter the two-month course in the spring of 2015.

“The Ranger assessment course would train men and women together in order to help prepare institutions, schools and leaders for future integration decisions,” the army said in a statement.

Opponents of lifting restrictions on women in combat argue that female soldiers lack the physical strength to perform the tasks required in an infantry unit at the front.

But officers said the standards for the course at Fort Benning in Georgia would not be altered for the female candidates.

“Current Ranger course standards will remain the same for all students; there will be no change to current performance requirements or graduation standards,” the army said.

In the rugged woods of Georgia and the swamps of Florida, soldiers at the Ranger school are put through a demanding regimen, performing long-distance patrols, simulated raids and parachute jumps while under intense physical and psychological stress.

The troops typically train for 20 hours a day and operate on fewer than four hours of sleep. And about half of those taking the course fail.

The Ranger school is designed to test leadership skills for a small unit under severe conditions, and the training brigade handbook carries the motto: “Not for the weak or fainthearted.”

The army said it was asking for female volunteers to take part in the Ranger school course as well as a second group of female observers and advisers.

It was still unclear how many women would be selected for the pilot project.

“It’s in the early stages and that (number of female students) has not been fully determined yet,” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Garrett told AFP.

The vast majority of army infantry officers pass through the Ranger school and army leaders say allowing women to attend the course would enable more female troops to be on a competitive footing with their male counterparts.

Graduating from the Ranger school does not necessarily mean a soldier serves in the elite Ranger battalion special operations units.

Women in the U.S. military already serve as combat pilots, officers on naval warships, and as medics and intelligence officers. But women are prohibited from serving in the military’s most dangerous ground combat jobs, including the special operations forces.

AFP Photo/Stephen Jaffe

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White House To Announce Measures To Combat Sexual Assault On Campus

White House To Announce Measures To Combat Sexual Assault On Campus

By Timothy M. Phelps, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The White House will announce new measures Tuesday to deal with campus sexual assault, an issue that in recent years has inflamed college campuses from Yale to the University of California, Berkeley.

The recommendations from a task force of federal officials headed by Vice President Joe Biden include publicizing enforcement data, issuing guidelines about confidentiality, and requiring colleges and universities to survey students on their experiences with sexual assault.

Three senior White House officials, who briefed the media in advance of the announcement, said that 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted while in college, usually in the first two years and usually by someone she knows. The Obama administration, they said, is committed to ending that violence.

“Colleges and universities need to face the facts about sexual assault,” Biden said in a statement Monday night. “No more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn’t exist. … And we need to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The actions, to be officially announced Tuesday afternoon at the White House, include:

Colleges and universities will be asked to survey students next year to determine the prevalence of sexual assault on campus and may be required to conduct such a survey in 2016.

A website, NotAlone.gov, will be unveiled to make each school’s enforcement data public, and to publish information about student rights and resources.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will release recommendations on how to prevent sexual violence, particularly on how to get bystanders to step in when students are at risk of assault.

The federal government will also address the touchy issue of confidentiality. Often victims ask that their names not be revealed to their attackers or the police, putting campus authorities in a bind in conducting investigations. The government will clarify that students can talk to certain guidance counselors in confidence and will issue guidelines on how to deal with confidentiality in resolving reports of violence.

Schools will be asked to improve their investigative and adjudicative procedures under guidance from the Justice Department.

New guidance will be issued making clear that questions about a victim’s sexual history should not be permitted during school hearings and that a previous sexual relationship does not imply consent.

President Barack Obama appointed the task force in January with a mandate to report back in 90 days. The Departments of Justice, Defense, Education, and Health and Human Services participated.

Campus authorities are often the first to investigate allegations of sexual assaults between students. Federal law requires detailed reporting of campus crime statistics and security problems, and also mandates extensive prevention and awareness programs.

Three years ago, the Obama administration notified college administrators that it believed sexual assault had become “epidemic” on campus. The Department of Education, which oversees the federal regulations, told administrators that they needed to tighten their procedures and increase preventive measures.

The new attention to the issue sparked an outcry from students and former students. They recounted stories of college administrators who they said had not taken their reports of being assaulted seriously and alleged that sex crimes were not being adequately reported.

Numerous legal complaints have been filed with the Department of Education, including UC Berkeley, Yale and Columbia. In Los Angeles, students at the University of Southern California and Occidental College have filed complaints.

Administrators, for their part, have said that dealing with campus sexual assaults can be extremely complicated, often involving students who know each other and have been drinking. Sometimes, they said, there are no witnesses and the victim wants to remain anonymous.

But outraged students connected across the nation by social media and backed by women’s groups have founded a powerful movement that has had a receptive hearing by the Obama administration.

Tom Lohdan via Flickr.com