Tuesday, November 11, 2014

U.S. Delays Delivery of F-16 Fighter Planes to Iraq • Fighting With Islamic State Poses Security Risk

The Wall Street Journal
By Julian E. Barnes

Updated Nov. 11, 2014 12:24 a.m. ET


WASHINGTON—The U.S. will delay delivery of F-16 fighter planes to Iraq for security reasons and will instead send them to Arizona, where Iraqi pilots are participating in a U.S.-run training program, the Defense Department said.

Originally, the planes were to be delivered to Balad air base north of Baghdad—the first F-16s to go to Iraqi Air Force pilots. But repeated attacks by the extremist group Islamic State in northeastern Iraq forced the Pentagon to reconsider the plan.

U.S. officials wouldn’t say on Monday when they plan to transfer the planes to the Iraqi government.

Islamic State fighters have captured large swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria since the summer. But Balad air base remains under the control of the Iraqi government, officials said. Attacks on the base by Islamic State militants have, however, made it unsafe to allow U.S. contractors—hired to maintain the planes—to work. The runways at Balad are strewed with debris and too damaged for regular use by fighter planes.

Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. and Iraqi militaries haven't yet drafted a plan to get the pilots and the planes into the fight against Islamic State.

Three of the new fighter planes will be sent to Tucson in December, and then one more a month from January to May for a total of eight. Air Force officials said the Iraqis are being trained by the Air National Guard Unit at Tucson International Airport. A total of 26 pilots are expected to be trained, and 16 are in training so far.

Separately, an airstrike that Iraqi media said injured the leader of Islamic State was likely conducted by Iraqi forces and not the U.S.-led coalition, American defense officials said Monday.

Iraqi state television reported on Sunday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in a weekend airstrike, but didn’t say where it happened.

U.S. defense officials said they are investigating the reports. If the Islamic State leader was indeed injured, it was likely in an airstrike launched by Iraqi forces near the city of al-Qaim and not in a U.S. strike on midlevel Islamic State leaders near the group’s stronghold in the city of Mosul, the U.S. officials said. The two cities are about 250 miles apart.

U.S. intelligence hasn’t been able to corroborate the reports from Iraqi media or purported statements by an Islamic State spokesman that Mr. Baghdadi was wounded, U.S. officials said.

But American officials are taking the reports seriously, noting that Islamic State would have little incentive to say Mr. Baghdadi was injured if he wasn’t.

“Obviously, there are a lot of conflicting reports out there on the fate of al-Baghdadi. But the bottom line for us is that we cannot confirm his current status,” said Col. Warren.

He said the U.S. wasn’t targeting Islamic State militants by name, but is trying to destroy the group’s ability to command its forces. Attacking so-called high value targets requires very precise intelligence, which the U.S. has so far had difficulty collecting in Iraq and Syria.

“Any ISIL leadership that is killed will benefit our mission,” Col. Warren said.

- Source:  http://online.wsj.com