New violence threatens Baghdad; China puts big guns on fake islands; Odierno’s shopping list; ‘Bug drones’ for SOF; And a bit more.
Iraq’s Anbar offensive brings death to Baghdad. The number of Iraqis killed in a dual car bombing late last night at upscale hotels in Baghdad rose this morning to 15 (with more than three dozen wounded), though the toll would have been higher had a third car bomb detonated as planned. “The situation is directly related to operations in Anbar, and operations in Tikrit. Iraq is in a state of war and what happened in Baghdad is a product of that war,” said Sameer al-Shwaili, a spokesman for Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Apparatus. AP’s Sameer Yacoub has more from the capital.
Meantime in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, the Islamic State carted out a one-handed preacher with his head veiled to speak at the embattled city’s main mosque late Wednesday, Reuters reported yesterday. “Iraqi security expert Hisham al-Hashimi, who closely tracks the hardline insurgents, identified the man as Ali Attiya al-Jubouri, also known as Abu Asim, or ‘the blind judge of the Islamic State’… the second highest religious authority after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the fifth man in the organization of Daesh.”
And near Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra, ISIS killed dozens when they swept into the city last week. Then they went about business like benevolent city administrators—fixing a power plant; turning on water pumps; opening a bakery and passing out bread. This terrorize-then-placate method of rule has “helped the group entrench itself in the cities of Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq, and is now unfolding in Palmyra,” The New York Times’ Anne Barnard and Hwaida Said report.
The tempting “Next Step” in Iraq (a large ground force) beckons—but it’ll just have to keep on beckoning, Odierno says. Embedding American trainers with Iraqi troops on the front lines “would make this [counter-ISIS fight] way more effective” despite an obvious escalation of risk, Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters yesterday—while also making sure to stick to the White House’s officially distinct but occasionally fuzzy line that now is the time for U.S. trainers and advisors, but not ground troops, in Iraq. Our own Marcus Weisgerber has more on the four-star’s “disappointment” that Iraq has “fallen apart.” Lots more on Odierno below.
China has placed mobile artillery on one of its largely artificial islands in the contested South China Sea, American satellite imagery reveals. The Wall Street Journal’s Julian Barnes and Gordon Lubold reported last night: “The U.S. imagery detected two Chinese motorized artillery pieces on one of the artificial islands built by China about one month ago. While the artillery wouldn’t pose a threat to U.S. planes or ships, U.S. officials said it could reach neighboring islands and that its presence was at odds with China’s public statements that the reclaimed islands are mainly for civilian use.” More on China below, too.
From Defense One
The bug drones are coming. U.S. special operators are trying out a palm-sized helicopter that became the smallest UAV in a combat zone when British SOF used it in Afghanistan. Patrick Tucker has the story.
Special operations meets artificial intelligence. Elite troops, unsurprisingly, have elite data needs. SOCOM’s intel-requirements chief describes how artificial intelligence is going to war. Tucker, again.
Syrian no-go zones: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has bipartisan, if slim, support for his proposal to create internationally enforced humanitarian “safe zones” inside the wartorn country, writes politics reporter Molly O’Toole.
Over at The Atlantic, Peter Beinert wonders why the GOP won’t declare war on ISIS. “Republican presidential candidates delight in slamming Obama’s strategy, but won’t vote on legislation to define the scope of the struggle.”
And finally, from the home of Nokia: A Finnish professor of cybersecurity says his middle-power country could help the world develop badly needed global online norms.
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The D Brief, from Ben Watson and Brad Peniston. Why not pass it to a friend? He or she can subscribe here. (Want to read it in your browser? Click here.) And do drop us a line at the-d-brief@defenseone.com.
Beijing may have just created the “most important [drone for] the future of war,” write Jeffrey Lin and Peter Singer of China’s secretive and allegedly enormous Divine Eagle. Get your Friday new-weapons fix, including multiple diagrams of the hulking UAV, here at Popular Science.
Ahead of the weekend summit that brings Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Singapore, WSJ’s Trefor Moss ticks off the list of priorities (mostly island-building) for the Pentagon and Carter, who’s set to speak Saturday morning.
And the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, quietly added a five-year, $425 million provision to the his version of the 2016 defense authorization bill for a “China Sea Initiative” to train and equip U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific. DoDBuzz’s Kris Osborn reports.
Apropos of nothing, here’s an 8-minute video showing the first F-35B Joint Strike Fighter’s operational testing aboard the USS Wasp off the coast of North Carolina. Shot and annotated by Aviation Week’s Amy Butler.
And the Air Force just graduated one of its smallest classes in years. The AP has that short hit here.
The Odierno lightning round: The Army is likely to allow women to attend at least a few more cycles of Ranger school, the four-star said, adding that a large part of the reason none made it through on the first try was their lack of patrolling experience. (Look for an update here today on how the eight women fared on their second try.)
He also laid out a list of 20 capabilities the Army is seeking—including a light vehicle that airborne troops might use during an assault, vertical lift, a “lighter tank-like capability,” etc.—and said his service is aiming to write flexible “requirements that leave room for improvement,” as opposed to the too-ambitious, oft-cancelled programs of the past, as Army Times’ Michelle Tan reports.
The chief also endorsed the Senate version of this year’s take on acquisition reform: Sen. John McCain’s bid to “give the individual military services greater control over acquisitions.” The Hill’s Martin Matishak has more.
Speaking of Congress, Odierno reprised Pentagon calls for a return to “normal” budgeting, saying the “lack of predictability is killing us.” That one from Michelle Tan once more.
Finally, on that whole anthrax snafu: the chief said he doesn’t think human error was a factor in the Army’s mistaken shipment of the live virus to numerous sites in the U.S. and South Korea. AP has a bit more on that angle here.
In Nigeria this morning, the Obama administration is signaling its intent to broaden the military fight against Boko Haram extremists, NYT’s Michael Gordon reports from State Secretary John Kerry’s half-day trip today to the capital of Abuja: “ ‘Something we can do quickly is to send advisers,’ said a senior State Department official, who could not be identified under the department’s protocol for briefing reporters. ‘It could be related to intelligence; it could be something very simple, related to things like logistics.’”
And in Saudi Arabia, for the second time in a week, a Shiite mosque has been bombed, AFP reports this morning.
Lithuania’s foreign minister says the Baltic nation wants a permanent NATO battalion to keep it safe from Vladimir Putin, the AP’s Edith Lederer reports from the UN. “It's not because we are preparing for war,” he said. “No. We are just trying to guarantee our security.”
North Korea is evidently taking a few small steps toward space. Satellite imagery from the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies “shows significant new construction at North Korea's main rocket launch site in a sign of leader Kim Jong Un's determination to pursue a space program despite international censure,” AP’s Matthew Pennington reported yesterday.
Think the film series “Star Wars” has nothing to teach contemporary war strategists? Army aviator Crispin Burke disagrees, and shares these five lessons from the George Lucas oeuvre over at Task and Purpose.
And closing out our Friday, everyone has an opinion about the White House’s ISIS strategy. Pop music granny Cher tweets this (translated from emojis): “Ash Carter Says ‘IRAQI ARMY LACKS WILL 2FIGHT’ YA THINK [crying emoji] Spend [money bag emoji] REALLY Arming The Kurds. We BLEW Off Sunni Tribesman, 4 Shiite Gov [and] Now We'll Pay.” So now that’s settled. Have a great weekend.