AfPak and US air power/Update: Scratch one senior AQ

Two amazingly detailed stories from Wired News (nothing like this would ever come through the CF--perhaps a good thing in cases such as these, via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

1) How the Afghanistan Air War Got Stuck in the Sky (lengthy piece, links in original)

I Anibal Paz is nearly surrounded. The sergeant and his squad of 15 or so Marines are crouched behind the crumbling mud walls of a small Afghan compound taking fire from three directions. Hiding in the tree line to the south, guerrillas pepper the Marines with automatic weapons fire. From a cornfield to the west come more AK-47 bursts. Most worrisome, though, are the bullets whizzing in from a squat building in a second compound a few hundred yards to the southeast. These are sniper shots from a bolt-action rifle. Unlike the AK barrage, they get closer with every round...

...Paz and his squad have been battling the insurgents. Mortars, artillery, and rockets from Cobra helicopters have all failed to stop the Taliban assault.

A pair of F-15 jets circle overhead. Cameras on the bellies of the aircraft capture the standoff: the opposing compounds, the tree line to one side, the fields between. The images are relayed to Echo’s headquarters, a burned-out schoolhouse just over half a mile away surrounded by sandbags and mortar tubes. Inside the school, Eric Meador, the company commander, leans over a small table and looks at the footage on a laptop...

The next step seems obvious: Call those F-15s and have them reduce the Taliban’s positions to rubble. That’s how the Marines took out insurgents in Fallujah in 2004. Hell, it’s how they went after the Taliban in August 2008. But it’s August 2009, and today Meador is not sure.

A month earlier, just as Meador, Paz, and 4,000 other Marines were getting ready to move into Helmand province, the US military modified its counterinsurgency strategy. Incoming top general Stanley McChrystal issued strict guidelines forbidding air strikes except in the most dire circumstances. The number one priority in Afghanistan, he declared, was to secure the population so normal life could resume. The US needed to rob the militants of popular support, he argued. Dropping bombs only disrupted lives and drove people into the arms of the Taliban. So civilian casualties from air strikes had to stop — immediately.

The directive has required a radical shift in the approach to Afghanistan...

While accidental civilian deaths dropped by 87 percent in the eight weeks following the order, American fatalities have more than doubled from 2008 levels. And to make the plan work,

McChrystal will get 37,000 more US and NATO troops...

...the Marines on the ground are mostly on their own. Even with Paz’s squad being attacked from three sides, a bombing run is not automatic. The Marines not only have to prove that civilians won’t be hurt, they also must guarantee that the bombs won’t so much as scratch civilian homes...

...Meador wants to protect his men. But he also can’t be sure who or what a bomb would hit. Meador tells Faucett to wave off the F-15s — and hopes he hasn’t made a serious mistake...

III With the F-15s gone, Paz and his squad must fend for themselves. Luckily, the Taliban fighters don’t press, and after a few hours the shooting peters out...

At 10:15 bullets explode from the southern tree line.

Normally, the Taliban fire in quick bursts and then pause before shooting again — a sign of unschooled, undisciplined fighters. This time, it’s a sustained stream of fire. And as soon as it ends, another barrage starts from the cornfields. This is a coordinated attack, orchestrated by someone well versed in infantry warfare. And judging by the number of guns firing, that pro might have as many as 15 or 20 men — triple the number of Marines left at Moba Khan.

Paz tells his radioman to get ahold of Nevins. But all they hear is static. Paz tries to maintain his composure. What about Meador? If they can reach him, there’s a decent chance of finally getting some air cover. Again, no response; the radio is dead. “Get that up,” Paz screams at his radio operator, “or we’re done!”..

Read on. This sort of intense ground combat, involving the Brits too, against Taliban forces that stand and fight seems much more prevalent in Helmand compared to Kandahar province. Perhaps a reason Helmand will get the first major reinforcements--more Marines--of the second US surge (more here about Helmand).

2) U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan (links in original)

The headquarters for the American military’s air war in Central Asia and the Middle East is located in a converted medical warehouse on an undisclosed base in a country the U.S. Air Force would rather not name. The lights are turned down low, so the troops can clearly see the giant screen at the far end of the in this cavernous, classified facility...

there are three dots, representing Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles, that aren’t above Afghanistan at all. These dots have moved to the east of the Afghan border; these drones are flying missions over Pakistan.

Over the past year and a half, the United States has stepped up drone strikes against militants in Pakistan — killing as many as a thousand people, by some estimates. Press accounts have largely credited the Central Intelligence Agency with running these missions. Government officials have refused to speak in public about drone attacks, just as they routinely rebuff any attempt to probe into the CIA’s operations. “I’m not going to comment on any particular tactic or technology,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told a group of Pakistani journalists.

But the U.S. Air Force also plays an important role in the drone missions over Pakistan, according to current and former American military officials, and judging from what I saw at that undisclosed location. The military supplies the aircraft. It monitors the flights in and out of Pakistan...

...The U.S. Air Force has a fleet of Predator and heavily-armed Reaper drones [see here], stationed at Kandahar [emphasis added] and Jalalabad Air Fields in Afghanistan. All of these robotic aircraft are allowed to venture occasionally into Pakistani airspace to pursue militants. The government in Islamabad just has to be notified first. Some of the Predators also fly into Pakistan on operations in conjunction with or in support of Islamabad’s military.

These missions are remotely flown by U.S. Air Force pilots at Creech Air Force Base [see end of 1) here], Nevada; the footage is shared with the Pakistani government, including at joint coordination centers on the border.

In addition, some of the Predators and Reapers are placed under the operational control of the CIA [see end of 1) here], which uses them to conduct their own strike and surveillance missions. Some of those drones take off from Jalalabad, others from within Pakistan itself, at a remote base called Shamshi...

From what I can tell, these CIA missions comprise the bulk of the drone flights over Pakistan. And the military has, at times, encouraged the notion that operating the unmanned aircraft was the spy agency’s job...

It wasn’t long ago that the United States condemned Israel for its “targeted killings” of Palestinian terrorists. Now, the U.S. pursues a similar tactic in its campaign against Al Qaeda...

Latest:

Senior al-Qaeda leader killed in US Predator drone strike in Pakistan

Update:

Sources: Drone Killed Top Qaeda Operative
Saleh al-Somali Was in Charge of External Operations for Group; Considered One of a half Dozen top Qaeda Operatives