gain some insights into their activity
by monitoring local news agencies
and through commercial satellite
imagery. One remarkable set of satellite
pictures of Raqqa in early September
showed four MQ-9 Reapers or MQ-1
Predators orbiting around the city at the
same time.
A US-run forward arming and refueling
point (FARP) could be made out in
satellite imagery at a site dubbed the
Lafarge Cement Works some 25 miles
(40km) north of Raqqa, with two CH-
47D Chinooks, a UH-60 Black Hawk and
two V-22 Ospreys clearly visible on the
landing pad. Local journalists repeatedly
photographed US Army AH-64D Apache
attack helicopters making strikes around
Raqqa, presumably responding to calls
for help, passed via US Joint Terminal
Attack Controllers (JTACs) or forward
air controllers on the front line with
advanced Kurdish units.
Also on call was the full spectrum
of manned and unmanned coalitionair assets, sent to orbit over Raqqa to
reduce reaction times. US, British and
French fast jets, as well as American
and British armed drones, were sent
to y over ‘kill boxes’ above Raqqa.
International television crews lmed
some very dramatic strikes as huge
bombs devastated buildings in the
shrinking IS enclave. Raqqa was the
epicenter of coalition air operations. On
October 7 the coalition air component
headquarters reported 53 air strikes in
Syria, of which 51 took place in Raqqa.
These ‘engaged four IS tactical units,
destroyed 50 ghting positions, a
tactical vehicle, six vehicles, one suicide
vehicle bomb, and four command and
control networks.’
Royal Air Force and US Air Force
Reaper drones had a key role in the
Battle of Raqqa, monitoring all
movement within the IS
enclave to give the Kurdish
ghters warning of
attacks by vehicle-borne suicide bombers. These were
the jihadis’ weapons of choice and
they carried so much explosive they
could devastate a whole street or city
block. They were often the precursor to
rapid jihadi counter-attacks that could
overwhelm traumatized Kurdish ghters,
so the Reaper crews had orders to take
them out as soon as they emerged from
the underground car parks or garages
where they were primed for action.
This massive bombardment began
to have an e ect by mid-October, with
reports emerging of hundreds of IS
ghters surrendering to Kurdish militia.Lifting the siege of
Deir ez-Zor
While the US-led coalition was focused
on Raqqa, further south the Syrians
and their Russian allies were looking
to use air power to drive eastwards to
break the siege of Deir ez-Zor on the
Euphrates. This city of 100,000 people
and a 5,000-strong Syrian Army garrison
had been holding out against IS siege
since 2014, relying on air-drops of aid
supplies by Russian Aerospace Forces
Il-76s and commercial Il-76s hired by theLeft: US Navy
EA-18G Growlers
from the
expeditionary
squadron
VAQ-132
‘Scorpions’ are
maintaining
overwatch of IS
militants as they
disperse. USAF/
TSgt Gregory
Brook
Below: A Russian
Mi-24P and
Mi-35M y low
over Syria as
part of the task
force to support
ground assets.
Russian MoDCOMBAT REPORT | FIGHTING ISLAMIC STATE
http://www.combataircraft.net January 201872
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