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.

Iranian-Backed Militia Attacks Base

On 30 June,three U.S. troops were killed and seven wounded in a rocket attack on Camp Shocker,a base on the Iran-Iraq border.A Shiite militia with Iranian and Lebanese ties,Kataib Hezbollah,or Hezbollah Brigades,is being blamed for the attack.They had claimed responsibility for a similar action that killed five U.S. troops earlier in the month.
Kataib Hezbollah has ties to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.They are focusing on attacking U.S. soldiers in Iraq,believing that American forces may remain in Iraq beyond the 31 December deadline for withdrawal agreed with the Iraqi government.These militants use a weapon called IRAMs,or improvised rocket-assisted mortars,which are only made in Iran.
Fifteen U.S. troops died in the Iraq War in June,the most since April 2009.Fourteen of them were killed in action.Besides Kataib Hezbollah,two other Shiite militias have been involved in recent attacks on Americans:League of the Righteous and Promised Day Brigades.
Iran denies it is supporting these militants,who post videos of their attacks on Americans on the Internet.Many of their leaders fled to Iran in 2008 when U.S. and Iraqi forces went after them in the summer of that year.Several other militia leaders were captured in that operation.Besides IRAMs,these militants use improvised explosive devices,mortars,rockets,rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in their attacks.