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SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 25, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Coalition military forces conducted 12 strikes consisting of 30 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria:

-- Near Shadaddi, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed three fighting positions, two vehicles, an ISIS headquarters, a storage facility and a vehicle-borne bomb.

-- Near Raqqa, five strikes destroyed an artillery system, a mortar system, a rocket system, a watercraft, a weapons storage facility and a chemical weapons facility.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed two oil wellheads.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle and a tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 95 engagements against ISIS targets in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a heavy machine gun and a logistics node.

-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed a homemade explosives cache and a vehicle-bomb factory.

-- Near Beiji, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed five ISIS-held buildings, three vehicles, a fighting position and a front-end loader.

-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and an ISIS sniper unit; destroyed nine fighting positions, eight mortar systems, five ISIS-held buildings, four command-and-control nodes, three vehicle-bomb facilities, three tactical vehicles, two vehicles, two artillery systems, two anti-air artillery systems, a rocket-propelled grenade system, an unmanned-aerial-vehicle storage facility, a front-end loader, a vehicle-bomb staging area and a supply cache; damaged 12 supply routes and four ISIS-held buildings; and suppressed 22 mortars and an artillery system.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Counter-ISIS Strikes Continue in Syria, Iraq > U.S. DEPARTMENT ... - Department of Defense

CONTEXT

The UN declared Iraq a Level 3 emergency (most severe level) under global humanitarian systems classification. It is one of three current Level 3 emergencies in the world. Iraq is currently facing two protracted large-scale crises. Ongoing conflict has caused approximately 3.1 million Iraqis to flee their homes and become internally displaced in their own country since 2013, while over 230,000 Syrian refugees were forced to seek safety and refuge in Iraq since 2012. Over half of the Iraqi IDP and Syrian refugee populations are children. On 17 October, 2016 Iraqi forces began to re-take the city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS) causing thousands more Iraqis to be displaced. Save the Children is currently responding to the needs of both Syrian refugee and IDP families, in camp and non-camp settings, by ensuring that children have access to quality education, healthcare, and protection services.

IDP Crisis

There are over 3.1 million IDPs in Iraq, according to OCHA, and 26% of them were displaced in August 2014. Nearly 87% of IDPs have fled three governorates: Anbar, Ninewa and Salah al Din. Displaced families are dispersed among camps and urban locations with a significant number living in unfinished buildings. Some children havent been to school for more than two years.

Syrian Refugee Crisis

Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) hosts 98% of the 233,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq, according to OCHA. Refugees are dispersed among camps and urban settings mainly across the governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah. In 2015 more than 15,000 refugees in Iraq returned to Syria, and thousands embarked on dangerous routes to Europe with their children. With depleted resources, refugee families in Iraq need food, healthcare, protection and access to quality education.

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Iraq Country Office Program Overview 2016 - ReliefWeb

The Australian government joined the widely unpopular Iraq War in 2003 deploying troops, warships, and combat aircraft solely to boost its relationship with George W. Bushs White House, a declassified Australian army paper has revealed.

A report, written by Dr. Albert Palazzo of the Australian Armys Directorate of Army Research and Analysis (DARA) between 2008 and 2011, was accessed by Fairfax Media and cited by the Sydney Morning Herald. DARA is a branch of the Australian Army Headquarters and serves as the Armys think tank

The 572-page declassified document provides enough evidence to prove that then Prime Minister John Howard joined former US President George W. Bush in invading Iraq only to strengthen Canberras ties with Washington.

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It also gives insight into how the political decision to enter the unpopular war was made Howards statements about enforcing UN resolutions, combatting global terrorism, and contributing to the post-war reconstruction of Iraq were dismissed in Palazzos report as mandatory rhetoric.

Eventually, Prime Minister Howard and the then Chief of the Australian Defense Force (ADF) General Peter Cosgrove were unwilling to accept the prospect of high casualties among the soldiers deployed to Iraq.

The government was uncomfortable with the prospect of losses due to the possible negative effect on the domestic political environment, the report said.

Australia, nonetheless, deployed a very limited number of troops and assets, which were often incapable of carrying out any noteworthy combat action. However, sending a sustainable and combat-capable contingent was secondary to the vital requirement of it just being there. Ultimately, such policy made some US military officers ridicule the Australian commitment, calling it a series of headquarters.

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The US wanted the Australians to provide a reconnaissance battle group consisting of light armored vehicles. Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy, who was then chief of Australian army, actually pushed for them to be sent to action at the time, but Cosgrove pushed back, finding the manpower requirement too large. Consequently, the only significant Australian force on the ground in Iraq was the SASR, Australias equivalent of the famous British Special Air Service, because the Army was not prepared to fight against even a mildly competent opponent, Palazzo wrote.

However, even the deployment of SASR got off track, the report stated. ADF dispatched several CH-47 Chinook helicopters to transport the special forces, but the pilots lacked experience and simply could not conduct aerial refueling or night insertion tasks, which were essential for the Iraq mission. Moreover, the aircraft had no electronic warfare equipment for evading Iraqi missiles.

The SASR were deployed in Iraq by US helicopters, the paper said, adding it is not possible to explain the rationale behind the CH-47s allocation to the war. In addition, the mission became even messier when some troops arrived without weapons. Hot meals were not available at this point either, so the Australian troops had to live on US combat rations during the four-month deployment, leading to an average weight loss of six kilograms per soldier.

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The lack of a clear mission was one of the factors negatively affecting troop morale. Numerous rotation commanders were convinced of the failure of the organization to inform them of what they were supposed to achieve in Iraq, the report said.

It was enormously frustrating, an Australian commander wrote. Another called the mission flag waving and feared the coalition allies would conclude that the ADF was a pack of posers. Another was angered when the Middle East commander accused him of mission creep though no mission had been defined in the first place.

In a telling statement to Palazzo, one of the officers said that the unstated policy of Operation Catalyst [was] that no mission was worth dying for.

Australias military contribution was relatively small in proportional terms, around 2,000 personnel in total, or 2.42 percent of its military compared to the US 4.85 percent and the UKs 12 percent. Aside from the special forces, Australia deployed two frigates, as well as refueling and combat aircraft.

Australias Defense Ministry has dismissed Palazzos report as unofficial history, which only represents the authors own opinion.

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Australia joined 2003 Iraq War solely to boost ties with Bush army think-tank - RT

The Ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States reiterate our commitment to preserving the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity, and national cohesion of Libya and our support for the Libyan Political Agreement of 17 December 2015 as the basis for an inclusive political solution of the current conflicts. We continue to support the Presidency Council as the legitimate governing body, recognised as such by UNSCR 2259. We continue to stand by UNSMILs efforts to address the political, security, economic and institutional crises facing the country.

We condemn the clashes which took place in Tripoli on February 23 and 24, as well as the indiscriminate use of violence against the Libyan people across Libya.

We welcome the cease-fire reached between the forces on the ground in the Abu Selim neighbourhood of the Capital, thanks to the intervention by the Presidency Council, and we reiterate that the use of force is the sole prerogative of State institutions and its security forces.

We condemn the use of violence and any threat levelled against Prime Minister Sarraj and Libyan institutions, as was the case in the attack of February 20th 2017.

We further call on all parties to cease violent acts which result in the loss of civilian lives, and undermine the prospects for political and social reconciliation of the country.

We reaffirm our position that Libyans should decide their own future, and we stand ready to support their efforts to build a strong, prosperous, and unified Libya and implement the Libyan Political Agreements vision for a peaceful transition to a new, elected government.

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Libya - Joint Statement by the Ambassadors of France, Germany ... - ReliefWeb

Tripoli - A ceasefire went into force early on Saturday in the Libyan capital after two days of fighting between rival gunmen injured nine people and forced residents to cower indoors, the government said.

The fighting between two rival armed groups in eastern Tripoli erupted on Thursday after one accused the other of kidnapping four of its members, the Tripoli-based news agency LANA reported.

It said families trapped in the conflict zone of Abu Slim appealed to the authorities to intervene to halt the violence which closed down the city centre.

The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said it had successfully brokered a ceasefire between the two groups, with help from town elders from Tarhuna and Gharian south of Tripoli.

An agreement has been reached to set up three committees to follow up on the accord, the GNA said in a statement released overnight.

One committee will be tasked with enforcing the ceasefire, another consisting of health ministry officials will follow up the condition of those wounded and the third will assess damage, the statement said.

The Libyan Red Crescent on Friday said nine people had been injured in the fighting. There was no official casualty toll.

LANA said the fighting with heavy weapons in the centre of Tripoli erupted on Thursday and raged throughout the day. A truce was reached, but quickly collapsed and clashes continued on Friday.

Residents caught in the crossfire said their homes were shaken by the sound of exploding rockets, as columns of smoke rose from the zone of fighting while tanks and trucks mounted with heavy anti-aircraft guns moved in the zone.

"Two apartments in housing blocks on the airport road were hit by rockets. I can see columns of smoke," local resident Nuria al-Mosbahi told AFP on Friday.

A convoy carrying GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj came under heavy gunfire near the Abu Slim sector on Monday, but he and other top officials with him survived unharmed.

Libya has been submerged in chaos since the fall and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed 2011 armed uprising.

Sarraj's fragile GNA, formed under a UN-backed deal signed in late 2015, has struggled to impose its authority, particularly in eastern Libya where a rival administration holds sway.

UN envoy Martin Kobler has deplored the fighting and called, in an online statement, for "calm, dialogue and the protection of civilians".

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Libya govt secures ceasefire after Tripoli clashes - News24