Pentagon Briefing:Afghanistan,Syria,Europe

On 9 September 2019,US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan R. Hoffman gave an off-camera press briefing covering a broad range of concerns.
On Afghanistan:
With regard to potential troop drawdowns or potential numbers,those are some hypotheticals that we'll look at once an agreement is in place.What we've always said,though,is that the number of troops that we will have will always be the appropriate level that we need to provide security there.We're going to focus on the counter-terror mission,and we're going to focus on the reason we got into Afghanistan in the first place,and that is to prevent terrorist operations or individuals from using Afghanistan as a base from which to operate against the homeland.*
When we're looking at what is the enduring presence,the enduring mission of the US is that we're going to focus on having a CT mission,and we're going to be where we need to be anywhere in the world to focus on terrorist actors from having a safe haven from which they could strike the US,whether it's Afghanistan or elsewhere.*
So all of our combatant commanders around the world take the life and safety of the troops under their command seriously.So General (Austin S.) Miller has the authority to take steps and take measures that he believes are  necessary to protect the troops that he has.*
On Europe:
On this current trip to Europe (by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper),he discussed the need for our allies to contribute more.We need to raise all of our capabilities,both in Europe and the Asia-Pacific,to confront China and Russia.
In certain areas,it may make sense for our allies,if they want to see the increase in funding for facilities in their country on our bases,they might want to consider looking into them (to pay for those facilities themselves).*
On Syria:
I don't have any information on troop numbers in Syria right now,that I can provide you with.What I can tell you is that in Syria,we're working very closely,particularly in the security mechanism that's taking place along the Turkish border,to try to limit the conflict (with the YPG Kurds),work on a way where we're in close coordination with the Turkish allies to help that,so that there's no additional conflict between any side,so that we can focus on the D-ISIS mission.*

The War Room:The US Air Force and the War On ISIL-plus the air strike on Libya

The hot,dusty expanse of Al Udeid Air Base in the deserts of Qatar is the home of US Central Command's Combined Forces Air Component,Lieutenant General John Hesterman III,commander.Since August 8,coalition airpower has significantly degraded ISIL's ability to organise,project and sustain combat power while taking exceptional care to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties,LTGEN Hesterman said.Coalition airpower has helped ground forces regain territory,removed significant numbers of fighters from the battlefield,and eliminated the majority of ISIL oil refining capability.*
As the enemy's tactics change,so have our air power tactics,and we are still fighting and eliminating ISIL fighters,added Major John Easton,Air Forces CENTCOM tactics officer.ISIL is very much afraid of our ability to strike them.*
I expect my team to lean forward,and they are,LTGEN Hesterman continued.Not only has airpower been effective,but it has enabled virtually every victory on the battlefield and given the ground forces time to regroup and get their forces in order.It's also given all our coalition nations the space and time to execute the international lines of effort for countering flow of foreign fighters;countering ISIL financing;providing humanitarian assistance;containing ISIL's messaging and stabilising liberated areas,all of which will be necessary to finish ISIL.
Responding to critics of the air campaign,Lieutenant Colonel Dave Haworth,Combined Air Operations Center Combat Operations Director,said that while pilots struck large numbers of targets in Desert Storm and the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom,those fights had extremely different and available target sets.In previous campaigns,we were fighting against a conventional military that massed in the open,away from the civilian population.Those target sets don't exist in this fight now.We're fighting an enemy that hides behind civilians.You simply can't compare then to now.*
A very recent example of what air power has achieved is the success of Kurdish YPG and Free Syrian Army ground forces in recapturing most of the strategic town of Tal Abyad,Syria from ISIL near the Turkish border.Only pockets of ISIL resistance remain in the town,which is a critical link in ISIL's supply line to their capital Raqqa,80 kilometers to the north.The Kurds and FSA entered the town on Monday 15 June after a day of swift advances enabled by coalition air strikes.More than 16,000 residents of Tal Abyad and nearby villages were displaced by the heavy fighting-terrorised by ISIL and bombarded from all sides,a refugee told the Al Jazeera news channel.The main push to the town had begun on 11 June.*
In another effective use of air power,in this case against al Qaida militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar,Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James confirmed that the Air Force had carried out an air strike in Libya with precision weapons.It was the first US air strike in Libya since 2011.Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren,US Army,added that two Boeing F-15 Strike Eagles carried out the raid with 500 lb. bombs in Eastern Libya,escorted by observation drones.
Belmokhtar was leader of an al Qaida affiliate which he co-founded called Al-Murabitoun,having formerly been chief of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb,AQIM.In that capacity,he was mastermind of the 2013 seizure of a gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the deaths of 38 hostages,including three Americans and several British.Belmokhtar also claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in Niger that killed 20 people.
The internationally recognised government of Libya stated on Tuesday that Belmokhtar and other militants were killed in the US raid,which took place on a farm south of Ajdabiya,about 160 kilometers south of Benghazi,as Belmokhtar met leaders from other Islamist extremist groups,including Ansar al-Sharia.*
In 2014,US special operations forces mounted an operation in Libya in which they captured Ahmed Abu Khattala.an organizer of the 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.*
Boeing (BA)

US and Arab Warplanes Respond To ISIL Hostage-taking;Iraq's New F-16s

The US-led air campaign against ISIL militants targeted an area of Hasakeh Province in Northeast Syria where the Islamist jihadists have terrorised 10 Assyrian Christian villages.ISIL abducted at least 220 women,children and elderly Christians from two of the villages,the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.In response,US and Arab ally warplanes attacked ISIL positions near the town of Tal Tamir.A total of four sorties were carried out there.The US has confirmed ISIL's ravaging of the villages,saying the militants had burned homes and churches,as well as kidnapping a large number of helpless Assyrian Christians.Thousands of other Assyrian Christians from the villages took refuge in the provincial capital Qumlishi and Hasakeh city. *
Northeast Syria has seen heavy fighting in recent days between ISIL and the YPG Kurds/Christian militia alliance.
The YPG Kurds also cut the ISIL supply line between Northeast Syria and neighbouring Iraq.ISIL in Syria is reportedly running out of cash because of a loss of oil revenue caused by coalition bombing,as well as the difficulty in crossing the Syrian-Iraqi border posed by the YPG Kurds.ISIL has consequently been salvaging and selling scrap metal generated by the war in Syria.
At the same time,ISIL have opened a new front in Southern Syria along the Lebanese border,where they claim to have engaged their anti-Assad rivals,the US-allied Free Syrian Army.The Lebanese army has reportedly responded to the fracas in the area by shelling jihadist militants who were crossing back and forth across the Syria-Lebanese border.*
The Iraqi Air Force has received the first of 36 Block 52 F-16 Fighting Falcons.The fighter bombers are straight off the Lockheed Martin assembly line.They will be armed with the most up to date weaponry.The aircraft were delivered to a base in Arizona,where 14 Iraqi pilots are receiving combat training from US Air National Guard trainers.When the training is completed and suitable bases have been built and secured in Iraq,the aircraft will be flown there and put into service.