Losing hearts and minds
12/2/15 17:26![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsWith 56 air raids, Jordan has managed to destroy 20% of the ISIL infrastructure in their key city of Raqqa, and force its leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi to hide for his life. The small Arab nation has started the bombardment of the terrorist base since last week, after the tragedy with the burned Jordanian pilot.
Logistical centres, military storages and barracks have been destroyed, the chief of staff of the Jordanian air forces announced in the weekend, adding that the air raids had diminished the ISIL military capacity by 20%, and killed about 7000 of their militants. Al Baghdadi is now hiding, and is constantly on the move. Earlier the Joradnian foreign minister Nasser Judeh said these strikes are "just the beginning of our revenge". The deployment of Jordanian troops on the Iraqi border shows that there'll certainly be an escalation.
This anger was unleashed after the outcome of the drama with the captured 26 y.o. Jordanian F16 pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh who had been downed over Syria on Christmas eve, and fell into ISIL hands. The Islamists wanted to trade him for the Iraqi woman Sajida al-Rishawi who was being held at a Jordanian prison on charges of terrorism. But while the kingdom was negotiating, US special troops made an attempt to free him, which turned out unsuccessful, The Daily Beast claims. That happened on Jan 1. A 22-minute video published on Feb 3 showed the murder of the lieutenant who was burned alive in a cage. Experts believe that must have happened as early as Jan 3, right after the unsuccessful rescue attempt.
Just a few hours after the video was aired, Jordan sentenced Sajida to death and hung both her and her compatriot Ziad Karbouli. The next day, a high-ranking Al Qaida member, Issam Barqawi also known as Abou Mohammad al-Maqdisi, was freed from jail. He had been arrested last year for being the spiritual mentor of the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As a prominent ideologue and recruiter for Al Qaida in the West, he was a stounch critic of ISIL's tactic of killing hostages. During the negotiations for the pilot, Maqdisi proposed to mediate his release, but that never happened.
Jordanian king Abdullah II who last year defined the battle with ISIL as "WW3 for the Arab world", has vowed to avenge the pilot with all means available. Jordan now seems determined to wipe ISIL off the face of Earth. Meanwhile, a multi-thousands march took place in Amman on Friday, the Jordanians at least temproarrily forgetting their internal differences about their country's participation in the anti-terror coalition and showing remarkable national unity. Queen Rania led the protest, where many people were shouting "We are all Muaz".
The raising of the pilot to a status of a martyr and national hero suddenly made any opposition to Jordan's pariticpation in the struggle against ISIL to look unpatriotic, if not even an act of treason. Which may sound eerily familiar to some of us who still remember the details about the response to 9-11. But I digress.
Now, in order to act upon the king's vow, the Jordanian air forces have received support from a F16 squadron from the UAE, plus a transport Boeing C-17. The UAE had cancelled their participation in the coalition after the Jordanian pilot was captured, but now they're back. Qatar has also given Jordan a quick loan of $ 100 million, some fresh money which is of key importance for the tiny country of 6 million, which is one of the two countries in the anti-ISIL coalition with a per capita GDP below $ 10K (the other one being Morocco). It alone among the allies has a border on both Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the cost of the 56 air strikes that Jordan delivered on Raqqa for the last few days could amount to half a million dollars, Foreign Policy estimates.
A week ago, king Abdullah and president Obama had signed an agreement on increasing the US financial aid to Jordan from $ 600 million to a billion. Then Czech president Milos Zeman arrived in Amman, where British prince Charlez and Bahraini king Hamad were also on a visit. Zeman gave Abdullah the highest medal of honour of the Czech Republic for Jordan's contribution to the struggle against terrorism. Then he went to the UAE, another country from the coalition. In the meantime, Jordanian official sources have told the NBC that Amman has already sent "thousands of soldiers" across the Iraqi border. They're supposed to both prevent the infiltration of ISIL militants into Jordanian territory and make a display of force.
It looks ever more likely that the military actions against ISIL will be shifting from the air to the ground now. In a few weeks the Iraqi army will start a major ground offensive to the north, aided by the allies, John Allen, Obama's special envoy to the coalition has told Jordanian information agency Petra. 12 ground brigades are being prepared and drilled for carrying out the assault. The Iraqi troops will bear the bulk of the burden, while the alliance will be providing the supporting firepower.
Not all factors in the region are OK with these developments, though. The Syrian foreign minister has criticised Jordan's intensive bombing of Raqqa, saying that his country doesn't need external help against ISIL and will not accept Jordanian or any other troops on its territory. So far no one from the coalition has mentioned anything of planned military operations on Syrian land. Still, Assad has admitted that his country has received information of the hits of the coalition on key ISIL locations on Syrian territory. He recently told the BBC that third countries (including Iraq) are providing Syria with information about these operations, but there's "no direct cooperation" between Syria and the coalition.
Both sides are preparing in wait of the incoming clash. ISIL has published a list of the names of 90 Jordanian military pilots, as well as pictures of their homes, with the text, "Wanted". This could play a deterring role in a country which is believed to have generated about 1500 militants for the various insurgency groups around Syria and Iraq, including 500 people who are now fighting for ISIL.
In turn, King Abdullah is bracing to be a key participant in a key religious conference which is to take place later this month in Cairo, hosted by Egyptian junta leader Gen. Sisi (who recently delivered a very compelling address to the religious leaders of his country, regarding Islamist extremism). It's expected that the two will shape up the religious framework and justification for a possible massive offensive against ISIL. During his recent visit in the US, the king reminded that in a September open letter, 120 Islamic scholars and clerics had discredited the cruel perverse ideology that the "takfir" (apostate) Al-Baghdadi is promoting. This might be an encouraging sign that deserves support, Abdullah told his US hosts in a speech at the Memorial of the Holocaust.
Logistical centres, military storages and barracks have been destroyed, the chief of staff of the Jordanian air forces announced in the weekend, adding that the air raids had diminished the ISIL military capacity by 20%, and killed about 7000 of their militants. Al Baghdadi is now hiding, and is constantly on the move. Earlier the Joradnian foreign minister Nasser Judeh said these strikes are "just the beginning of our revenge". The deployment of Jordanian troops on the Iraqi border shows that there'll certainly be an escalation.
This anger was unleashed after the outcome of the drama with the captured 26 y.o. Jordanian F16 pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh who had been downed over Syria on Christmas eve, and fell into ISIL hands. The Islamists wanted to trade him for the Iraqi woman Sajida al-Rishawi who was being held at a Jordanian prison on charges of terrorism. But while the kingdom was negotiating, US special troops made an attempt to free him, which turned out unsuccessful, The Daily Beast claims. That happened on Jan 1. A 22-minute video published on Feb 3 showed the murder of the lieutenant who was burned alive in a cage. Experts believe that must have happened as early as Jan 3, right after the unsuccessful rescue attempt.
Just a few hours after the video was aired, Jordan sentenced Sajida to death and hung both her and her compatriot Ziad Karbouli. The next day, a high-ranking Al Qaida member, Issam Barqawi also known as Abou Mohammad al-Maqdisi, was freed from jail. He had been arrested last year for being the spiritual mentor of the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As a prominent ideologue and recruiter for Al Qaida in the West, he was a stounch critic of ISIL's tactic of killing hostages. During the negotiations for the pilot, Maqdisi proposed to mediate his release, but that never happened.
Jordanian king Abdullah II who last year defined the battle with ISIL as "WW3 for the Arab world", has vowed to avenge the pilot with all means available. Jordan now seems determined to wipe ISIL off the face of Earth. Meanwhile, a multi-thousands march took place in Amman on Friday, the Jordanians at least temproarrily forgetting their internal differences about their country's participation in the anti-terror coalition and showing remarkable national unity. Queen Rania led the protest, where many people were shouting "We are all Muaz".
The raising of the pilot to a status of a martyr and national hero suddenly made any opposition to Jordan's pariticpation in the struggle against ISIL to look unpatriotic, if not even an act of treason. Which may sound eerily familiar to some of us who still remember the details about the response to 9-11. But I digress.
Now, in order to act upon the king's vow, the Jordanian air forces have received support from a F16 squadron from the UAE, plus a transport Boeing C-17. The UAE had cancelled their participation in the coalition after the Jordanian pilot was captured, but now they're back. Qatar has also given Jordan a quick loan of $ 100 million, some fresh money which is of key importance for the tiny country of 6 million, which is one of the two countries in the anti-ISIL coalition with a per capita GDP below $ 10K (the other one being Morocco). It alone among the allies has a border on both Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the cost of the 56 air strikes that Jordan delivered on Raqqa for the last few days could amount to half a million dollars, Foreign Policy estimates.
A week ago, king Abdullah and president Obama had signed an agreement on increasing the US financial aid to Jordan from $ 600 million to a billion. Then Czech president Milos Zeman arrived in Amman, where British prince Charlez and Bahraini king Hamad were also on a visit. Zeman gave Abdullah the highest medal of honour of the Czech Republic for Jordan's contribution to the struggle against terrorism. Then he went to the UAE, another country from the coalition. In the meantime, Jordanian official sources have told the NBC that Amman has already sent "thousands of soldiers" across the Iraqi border. They're supposed to both prevent the infiltration of ISIL militants into Jordanian territory and make a display of force.
It looks ever more likely that the military actions against ISIL will be shifting from the air to the ground now. In a few weeks the Iraqi army will start a major ground offensive to the north, aided by the allies, John Allen, Obama's special envoy to the coalition has told Jordanian information agency Petra. 12 ground brigades are being prepared and drilled for carrying out the assault. The Iraqi troops will bear the bulk of the burden, while the alliance will be providing the supporting firepower.
Not all factors in the region are OK with these developments, though. The Syrian foreign minister has criticised Jordan's intensive bombing of Raqqa, saying that his country doesn't need external help against ISIL and will not accept Jordanian or any other troops on its territory. So far no one from the coalition has mentioned anything of planned military operations on Syrian land. Still, Assad has admitted that his country has received information of the hits of the coalition on key ISIL locations on Syrian territory. He recently told the BBC that third countries (including Iraq) are providing Syria with information about these operations, but there's "no direct cooperation" between Syria and the coalition.
Both sides are preparing in wait of the incoming clash. ISIL has published a list of the names of 90 Jordanian military pilots, as well as pictures of their homes, with the text, "Wanted". This could play a deterring role in a country which is believed to have generated about 1500 militants for the various insurgency groups around Syria and Iraq, including 500 people who are now fighting for ISIL.
In turn, King Abdullah is bracing to be a key participant in a key religious conference which is to take place later this month in Cairo, hosted by Egyptian junta leader Gen. Sisi (who recently delivered a very compelling address to the religious leaders of his country, regarding Islamist extremism). It's expected that the two will shape up the religious framework and justification for a possible massive offensive against ISIL. During his recent visit in the US, the king reminded that in a September open letter, 120 Islamic scholars and clerics had discredited the cruel perverse ideology that the "takfir" (apostate) Al-Baghdadi is promoting. This might be an encouraging sign that deserves support, Abdullah told his US hosts in a speech at the Memorial of the Holocaust.
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(no subject)
Date: 12/2/15 18:29 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/2/15 18:41 (UTC)Do you mean "him" - the pilot?
(no subject)
Date: 12/2/15 19:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/2/15 20:19 (UTC)At 9k per strike, that's pretty cheap for airstrikes.