Destroys ancient city of Nimrud
ISIS militants bulldoze the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud in a fresh attack on country’s cultural and historical heritage. Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago:
It’s the deliberate destruction of a heritage and its images, intended to erase history and the identity of the people of Iraq, whether in the past or the present
Iraq launches offensive against ISIS
The Iraqi army with the help of some Shia militant groups launches an operation to clear ISIS from Tikrit, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank:
The Shia militias participating in the operation to retake Tikrit are highly motivated to deal a counterblow in this symbolic area
Turning churches into torture chambers
ISIS is reported to be turning Christian churches into torture chambers and stripping the former places of worship of ancient relics, which they are smuggling to Western collectors to help fund their terrorist activity. Christians are being held captive in make-shift torture chambers set up in raided churches in Qaraqosh. Jerusalem Post report:
This is why they are crucifying Christians — which includes children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. ‘The reality is, this group will stop at practically nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.
CIA interrogator discusses ‘enhanced’ techniques
A CIA interrogator writing under a pseudonym publishes a document (full text here) covering many aspects of the debate over enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs), especially the effectiveness of the techniques. The document is reported to challenge conclusions of the upcoming Feinstein report on EITs. The interrogator says he underwent ‘soft-sell’ and ‘hard-sell’ interrogation techniques himself as part of a survival course, and was able to maintain lies during the ‘soft-sell,’ verbal-only questioning:
I then learned the difference between “soft-sell” and “hard-sell” by way of a large interrogator who applied enhanced techniques promptly upon the uttering of my first lie…I learned that I would rather sit across from the most talented interrogator on earth doing a soft-sell than any interrogator on earth doing a hard-sell—the information I had would be safer because the only consequences to my lies come in the form of words. I could handle words. Anyone could.
Ask any SERE Level C graduate which method was more effective on him or her—their answer should tell you something about the effectiveness of enhanced techniques, whether you agree with them or not. In my case, I learned that enhanced techniques made me want to tell the truth to make it stop—not to compound my situation with more lies.
UK troops to return to Iraq
Training teams will be sent to the semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, the first UK troop presence in the country since its withdrawal in 2011. Whitehall spokesman:
If Iraq fails or the government becomes sectarian then that is a massive problem
The number of troops isn’t specified.
Missiles threaten aircrews
Reports that ISIS is using advanced SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) in Iraq are a concern for aircrews as U.S.-led airstrikes step up. The group is reported to have used a Chinese-made shoulder-launched SAM to shoot down an Iraqi army Mi35-M attack helicopter this month, and has reportedly shot down several other helicopters during the conflict. Military official:
Based on past conflicts, [the missiles] are game changers out there.
Met chief: Five Britons a week travel to join jihad
Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe says the figure is a minimum, and the ‘drumbeat of terrorism in the UK’ is now ‘faster and more intense’.
Those are the ones that we believe have gone. There may be many more who set out to travel to another country and meandered over to Syria and Iraq in a way that is not always possible to spot when you have failed states and leaky borders.
Reaper drones may get attack role
The UK government is reported to redeploy drones based in Afghanistan to Iraq and Syria, where they may get authorization to deploy Hellfire missiles. They will be based in Kuwait and controlled via satellite link from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. Whitehall official:
The Reapers would be very useful for intel on Isis in Syria for ourselves and our allies; that would be their primary purpose. Their use in combat would obviously depend on parliamentary approval – unless we have a need for them to secure the wellbeing of British subjects or prevent a humanitarian crisis.
Launches 15 attacks
ISIS launches 15 near-simultaneous attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq. It also attackes peshmerga forces at the Mosul dam and nearby in the Nineveh Valley, and at Mt. Sinjar. Hazhar Ismail, brigadier general at the Ministry of Peshmerga:
ISIS failed in their attempt to control the village of Sharaf ad-Din after Peshmerga forces repelled the attack and managed to kill a number of ISIS militants.
The group seized two villages in an area close to Sharaf ad-Din, in Sinjar, but the villages were unpopulated as a result of ISIS attacks in August.
Dragons Egg weapons cache may have been opened
Soldiers are concerned that the contents of the most secret bunker of Saddam Hussein’s regime, known as the Dragon’s Egg, may have been unsealed after reports that ISIS may be using chemical weapons. The X-shaped bunker was sealed with cement and was treated differently from other storage spaces at the Al Muthanna facility, says Lt. Joshua Hartley, who was stationed there in 2008 with the weapons company of the U.S. Marine Corps Second Division’s First Battalion.
We were made aware of a particular bunker on the north side [of Al Muthanna] which we were informed was sealed and remotely monitored. We were not to approach, and definitely not to attempt to enter.
He says it is an open secret that the bunker contained large amounts of the regime’s most dangerous nerve agents. Gen. Jack Kean, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, says the Dragons Egg and other caches could be used against troops:
Frankly, the weapons could be used by ISIS. Our troops’ mission was not to clean this up; that was something the Iraqis were supposed to do, and obviously they didn’t do a very good job of it. I know from talking to people who were involved, that the Sunni insurgents used some of these weapons as IED’s against us.
60 airstrikes in 72 hours
U.S. forces conduct the highest number of air strikes yet of any campaign in support of the Kurdish fighters in Kobani, but U.S. CentCom commander General Lloyd Austin says it’s still ‘highly possible’ the town might fall to ISIS, and says the focus remains on Iraq:
Iraq is our main effort, and it has to be, and the things that we’re doing right now in Syria are being done primarily to shape the conditions in Iraq
Report: U.S. soldiers found chemical weapons
The New York Times reports that American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein’s rule, and were wounded by them on at least six occasions, between 2004 and 2011. Troops secretly reported finding close to 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, it says. The report is based on interviews with soldiers and officials, as well as redacted intelligence documents (available here.) It says the finds were kept secret from the public and not circulated widely within the military, and some soldiers who were wounded had their injuries covered up, even to the extent of being denied treatment. Most of the areas where weapons were encountered are reportedly now under ISIS control. A large fraction of the weapons were not in serviceable condition, and did not disperse the chemical agents over more than a limited area when they were ruptured. But some of the weapons can still be serviceable in IEDs. Former Army sergeant on hand for the destruction of mustard shells:
I love it when I hear, ‘Oh there weren’t any chemical weapons in Iraq.’ There were plenty.
Close to completing Anbar takeover – report
Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent that ISIS is close to taking over the province and threatening western Baghdad. He says that an ISIS offensive launched on Oct. 2 has captured almost all the cities and towns it did not already hold in Anbar , taking Hit, Kubaisa and the provincial capital Ramadi. Other cities, towns and bases on or close to the Euphrates River west of Baghdad fell in a few days, often after little resistance by the Iraqi Army, even when backed by US air strikes.
Turkish hostages free
Dozens of Turkish hostages are free after three months in captivity. They were captured in June by ISIS militants. Hostages included Consul general Ozturk Yilmaz and his family. It is unclear how they have been freed, but Erdogan thanks Turkish intelligence officials in a statement on his website.
I thank … every single member of the National Intelligence Agency from the director to the field operatives. I congratulate them for their big success from the bottom of my heart.
Half Iraqi army not ready
Half of the potential military prowess in Iraq is not capable of effectively teaming up with the United States. The other half requires rebuilding efforts consisting of additional training and equipment. Dempsey is hoping this force is made ready with intelligence, air surveillance and tactical air power, along with advisers to assist. Dempsey:
This is about training them in protected locations and then enabling them…
Dempsey also explains that a large US military force, also known as boots on the ground, cannot fix the problem of the Islamic State taking over large swaths of land. He says the key is to form an Iraqi government that unites the Kurdish and Sunni populations as equal partners. Dempsey:
I’m telling you, if that doesn’t happen then it’s time for Plan B.
The general further explains why even US air power cannot ultimately stop ISIS. Dempsey:
What we’ve seen so far is, a lot of the black flags have come down, a lot of the convoys have dispersed, a lot of the (fighter) assembly areas have been moved into urban areas. This will be a campaign of adaptation.
Manning: Focus on containment
Manning writes a commentary in The Guardian stating that military strikes play to ISIS’s strengths, and recommending four areas that a containment strategy could focus on. She suggests countering ISIS’s online presence to curb recruitment. The coalition should then set clear, temporary borders in the region to discourage ISIS taking territory where humanitarian issues could result. It should place a moratorium on ransom payments for hostages and cut off other sources of ISIS funding such as oil trade and artefact theft. Finally, it should allow ISIS to succeed in setting up a failed ‘state’ – in a contained area and over a long enough period of time to prove itself unpopular and unable to govern.
Eventually, if they are properly contained, I believe that Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities – ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.
Local forces to fight ISIS
Hagel says that the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria will depend on local opposition:
The best counterweight against Isil are local forces
U.S. troops will not engage the group directly:
American forces will not have a combat mission.
He says U.S. forces in Iraq will operate out of Baghdad and Irbil, for a total of about 1,600 troops. will support Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has agreed to host training grounds for more than 5,000 Syrian opposition forces, who will be given small arms, vehicles and communications equipment and training:
We would be prepared to provide increasingly [sophisticated] types of assistance.
The U.S. will select the Syrian opposition carefully:
A rigorous vetting process would be critical to the success of this program. There will always be risks. But we believe that risk is justified.
Hagel: ‘We are at war’
Defense Secretary Hagel says that the U.S. is fighting a war against ISIS:
This will not be an easy or a brief effort … We are at war with Isil, as we are with al-Qaeda.
Expands air campaign
Less than a week after President Obama pledged a multi-step campaign to degrade and destroy IS militants, U.S. attack and fighter aircraft are used Sunday and Monday beyond humanitarian missions and protecting U.S. personnel. Two airstrikes target ISIS positions in Sinjar to the north and southwest of Baghdad in support of Iraqi offensive operations. The number of air strikes has now risen to 162 since early August.
No air strikes
Cameron resists calls for the UK to join the U.S. in conducting airstrikes on ISIS. With the threat posed by ISIS to UK citizens underscored by the group’s execution of Haines, Cameron says the nation will stick with its approach of diplomatic pressure, supporting U.S. action and helping Iraqi and local Kurdish authorities. Televised statement:
As this strategy intensifies, we are ready to take whatever steps are necessary to deal with this threat and keep our country safe. Step by step, we must drive back, dismantle, and ultimately destroy ISIL (IS) and what it stands for. We will do so in a calm, deliberate way, but with an iron determination.