US Airstrikes against Daesh Ineffective: Senior Iraqi Figure

Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization whose armed wing has been fighting alongside Iraqi security forces to recapture territory seized by Daesh delivered a damning assessment of the airstrikes that the United States and its allies have been conducting against Daesh for almost 18 months.

He said these had failed to dislodge Daesh because they failed to target its vital structure.

“Today Daesh has command centers, their locations are known, their logistics are known,” Amiri said. “Its leadership is known, its military convoys are known, its training camps are known. Until now we have not seen effective airstrikes.”

He said the ultra-hard-line militants had secured sophisticated US-made anti-tank weapons, including TOW missiles, through Persian Gulf Arab states. And he ridiculed the idea that Western powers could ensure arms only reached the so-called "moderate" rebel groups.

“They [rebels] did not capture these missiles; they were supplied by America, Saudi Arabia and (Persian) Gulf states under the pretext of arming the moderate opposition in Syria. Who is the moderate opposition? Ahrar al-Sham? Jaysh al-Islam? Nusra or Daesh?” he asked, reeling off the names of competing extremist factions.

“All of them are terrorists,” he said. “Any moderate factions in Syria are weak. Even if they are supplied with weapons, Daesh seizes them.”

Military aid from states including Saudi Arabia has been supplied to Syrian terrorists fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army in western Syria, and some of these groups have received military training from the US Central Intelligence Agency. The training has included how to use TOW missiles.

Forces like Amiri’s have played a vital role in helping Iraqi security forces recover lost territory from Daesh, which seized a string of major cities in 2014. When the militants declared that year that they had established a so-called caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria, he left a senior government post and rushed to the frontlines.

Since then, the government forces and their allies have regained control of key cities – Tikrit, Ramadi and Beiji.

But he said there were more obstacles ahead before they could launch a battle to recapture Mosul, the country’s second city and the biggest under Daesh control. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor have long pledged to “liberate” Mosul, but their plans have been repeatedly delayed.

“There are preparatory operations to retake Mosul, but other operations have a priority. We want to go to Mosul with the reassurance that Baghdad is safe and all the provinces in the north and the south are safe. This is the main reason that delayed us advancing towards Mosul,” Amiri said. “We have a decision not to enter the city of Mosul. We will surround it from outside and leave its people and its tribes to take part while we conduct the siege.”