Getting Through the Technology--A Lesson from ISIS

Yesterday, Fox News reported on the battle a town called al-Baghdadi, near the Al Asad air base in Iraq, home to 320 U.S. Marines. After noting that ISIS had captured nearly all of the town, the report went on:

The Al Asad air base is where 320 U.S. Marines are stationed training Iraqi forces. It is a mere 13-minute drive from al-Baghdadi to the base. 

“It bears watching,” retired Col. Thomas Lynch, a National Defense University fellow, told Fox News, regarding the reports out of Iraq. 

But he stressed that for the fighters to pose a threat to the base, they’d have to get through the perimeter. While “it’s not impossible,” Lynch said, to do it they would have to amass a large number of fighters – which would make them “vulnerable” to airstrikes.

To have airstrikes you must, of course, be able to fly the aircraft. Thus, today we read (via The Daily Mail):

Iraqi security forces killed eight ISIS assailants disguised in Iraqi Army uniforms during an attack today against an air base where 320 U.S Marines are currently training Iraqi troops, military officials said. 

The strike on the Ain al-Asad base, which is currently being plummeted with rocket fire, came after insurgents from the Islamic State took Al-Baghdadi, a neighboring town only nine miles away from the base.  

They launched their offense on the base after poor weather halted air strikes.

(Underline added). This isn't to suggest that ISIS has been able to avoid the impact of airstrikes. "Coalition warplanes and drones have killed more than 6,000 fighters since September, including more than half the militants serving on ISIS' ruling council, US Secretary John Kerry has claimed," and ISIS has issued new guidelines to its commanders on techniques to avoid being killed in targeted airstrikes. However, it is still boots on the ground that ultimately count, and its interesting to read from this account from Voice of America that in the battle for town, "the militants tried to infiltrate the town via the river, taking advantage of cloud cover and bad weather. While they captured a number of buildings in the town, he said they met fierce resistance from local residents and were eventually pushed back." (Underline added). The question, though, is whether these were "local residents," or Shiite militia--a possible future threat in the region.