US opens air campaign in Libya; Chlorine gas used in Syria?; A look at the US troops training Ukraine’s army; Dempsey’s stern words for fellow flags; and a bit more.
After new wave of U.S. strikes, Libyan troops advance on Islamic State stronghold in Sirte. Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government took control of a central residential district in the coastal city of Sirte this morning after fighting with Islamic State militants killed five of their members and wounded 17, Agence France-Presse reports from Tripoli. “More than 300 pro-GNA fighters have been killed and over 1,500 wounded since the start of the battle for Sirte,” writes AFP “according to medical sources in Misrata.”
Fighting in Sirte had been stalled for weeks in the face of ISIS snipers and car bombs. But now the advancing forces are looking to capitalize on newly-authorized American airstrikes on ISIS in Libya, action the U.S. military said began Monday after Libya’s newly-formed Government of National Accord requested the U.S. strikes in the past few days, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
Cook gave no end point to the new strikes, which open up a third major front against the group, this time targeting its largest known hub outside of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS’ Libyan affiliate is believed to have “under 1,000—possibly several hundred” fighters in Sirte, Cook said. But the group could have anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 fighters across the country, drawn from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Morocco and Mauritania, according to a UN Security Council report Secretary General Ban Ki-moon referenced in mid-July.
News of the strikes comes just two weeks after the UN said the group is facing the “distinct possibility” of defeat in Sirte, and could scatter across North Africa as a result.
The Pentagon said no American troops are on the ground helping direct these most recent strikes, but Cook admitted U.S. troops have been “in and out” of the country for some time now. Read the rest, here.
Here’s a grim reminder of some of the wider context around Libya: 120 migrant bodies washed up on Libya’s shores in recent days. That, here.
Another allegation of chemical weapons use has surfaced in Syria, this time in northwest Idlib governorate, near the site where the Russian helicopter was shot down about halfway between Aleppo and the main Russian air base at Syria’s Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia, Reuters reports: “A spokesman for Syria Civil Defence said 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province. The group, which describes itself as a neutral band of search-and-rescue volunteers, posted a video on YouTube that apparently shows men struggling to breathe and being given oxygen masks by people in civil defence uniforms. Syria Civil Defence workers, who went to the scene of the attack, said they suspected the gas was chlorine but could not verify that.”
Conditions are worsening in Aleppo, The Wall Street Journal reports after Syrian allied airstrikes have pounded hospitals, markets, utilities and aid warehouses in rebel-held portions of the city in military moves that opposition officials and aid workers call “a concerted effort to force rebels and residents to surrender quickly.”
The opposition forces have been preparing for this for weeks, the Journal writes, but stockpiled food only lasts so long—and the Assad regime’s siege of the city is quickly dwindling those supplies.
“The warplanes are not striking the headquarters of [rebel] factions. They are targeting the infrastructure in order to create a feeling of defeat and surrender,” said Muhammad al-Zein, an administrator with the medical council overseeing hospitals in the rebel-held part of Aleppo.
Take a video tour of a hospital in Aleppo, where just seven such facilities remain in opposition-held territory, via this walk-through with The New York Times’ Anne Barnard.
In Iraq, the country’s defense minister is under increasing scrutiny amid corruption allegations that have put travel on hold for many diplomats, AP reports from Baghdad.
Is the F-35A ready for war? The Air Force has scheduled a 1 p.m. briefing at the Pentagon with Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command. Carlisle is likely to says the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is ready for war. After all, he’s been hinting for several weeks that this would happen soon.
From Defense One
Keep your politics private, my fellow generals and admirals, writes Gen. (ret.) Martin Dempsey in an exclusive op-ed at Defense One. “We must not compromise our military’s special role in democracy, nor hinder those who come after us.” Read on, here.
Obama orders air campaign against ISIS in Libya, escalating ‘no-boots war.’ There’s no projected end to the strikes, which U.S. officials say have been requested by the new Libyan government. News Editor Ben Watson reports, here.
Gold Star Families deserve better than one news cycle. Hashtag sympathy must be matched by real-world caring, writes Gayle Tzemach Lemmon in the wake of Trump’s dissing of the Khan family. Read on, here.
Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The D Brief by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. On this day in 1999, the U.S. successfully tested its THAAD missile system for just the second time after six failures spanning nearly four years of tests. Send your friends this link: http://get.defenseone.com/d-brief/. And let us know your news: the-d-brief@defenseone.com.
VIDEO: It’s been exactly five years since the Budget Control Act was signed into law, summoning months of banter on Capitol Hill over “appropriate” levels of funding for the U.S. military. And the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ resident budgetary guru, Todd Harrison, is here to explain all the implications of that 2011 BCA to the world we live in today in 2016. His explanation—built around seven illuminating questions—even comes with a superb companion video, and you can find both, here.
American army general dies two days before a key promotion for U.S. missile defense. The U.S. Army’s incoming Space and Missile defense commander for the arsenal at Red Stone died two days before he was supposed to assume the new post. “Maj. Gen. John Rossi, 55, died Sunday in his on-post home at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama,” Military Times reported Monday. “At this point we don’t have any indication of foul play,” said Chris Grey, a spokesman for Army Criminal Investigation Command.
Rossi had just arrived at Redstone after relinquishing command at Fort Sill in July, MT writes, adding, “He and his family moved into their house on-post less than two weeks ago.”
Today was going to be the day that Rossie was promoted to three-star general, replacing Lt. Gen. David Mann as commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command. Now Mann will stay on, delaying his retirement. More here.
Can 500 American and Canadian troops turn a Soviet army into a modern fighting force? U.S. News’ Paul Shinkman reports from a training facility in Ukraine on their best efforts with 30-year-old ammo amid American hesitance to provide lethal aid to the country that’s been battling Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
In the Asia-Pacific, “Japan called North Korea's nuclear and missile development a "grave and imminent threat" to the region and international security, and criticized China's increasingly assertive military action as dangerous in an annual defense report approved Tuesday by the Cabinet,” AP writes on the heels of a recent 484-page report. This year’s write-up is “60 pages thicker than last year’s. The ministry said that was partly because of ‘various incidents that took place around Japan,’” the Journal adds.
ICYMI: President Obama penned an op-ed exclusive for veterans over at Task & Purpose on Monday. “After two major ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, I’m humbled by the service of our veterans and mindful that our obligations to our newest veterans – our proud 9/11 Generation – have only just begun. When I came into office, we had nearly 180,000 American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today that number is less than 15,000. Most of our troops have come home.”
His outlook: "First, we have to keep fighting for the resources our veterans deserve... Second, we have to deliver the health care you’ve been promised... Third, we need to keep reducing the disability claims backlog... Fourth, we’ve got to keep up the fight to end the tragedy of veteran homelessness... Fifth, we have to keep fighting to give you and your families the opportunities to live the American Dream that you helped to defend."
His last word: “Because over these past seven and a half years, I’ve seen the spirit of America. I’ve seen the strength of America’s veterans. And when we take care of each other, when we uphold that sacred covenant, then there is nothing we can’t do.” Read the rest, here.
And finally today—fake news alert—“The U.S. Navy to build USS Thanks Obama for deployment to every disaster,” reads the headline from the jokesters at Duffel Blog. “The planned ship will be an updated design of the Littoral Combat Ship — which many view as one of the best ships in the Navy — though it will have integrated solar panels as its main power source. The USS Thanks Obama will also be put on the water long before its ready and will be billions over budget, in keeping with both Obama administration and Navy tradition... [Navy Secretary Ray] Mabus also said it would be the first ship equipped with a magazine of six auxiliary captains onboard, for rapid firing and replacement.” More where that came from, over here.