MESOP : CLICK FOR AUTHENTIC VIDEOS – CENTCOM videos show airstrikes on Islamic State artillery, convoy

10.8.2014 – US Central Command (CENTCOM) released two videos of two of the three airstrikes by F/A-18 Hornets and drones (presumably Predators or Reapers) reported to have taken place yesterday in northern Iraq against the Islamic State. Yesterday, the US military said it struck a “mobile artillery piece,” and “a stationary ISIL [Islamic State] convoy of seven vehicles and a mortar position” all near Irbil , the capital of Kurdistan.

In the first video, above, the gun camera video shows what appears to be a towed artillery piece just before it is struck. The above video certainly isn’t showing mortar positions or an Islamic State convoy. And it also isn’t showing mobile artillery, also known as self-propelled artillery. Either Admiral Kirby, the Pentagon briefer, and CENTCOM misidentified the type of artillery being hit, or there was another strike that wasn’t reported. The former is more likely. The video below shows what appears to be strike strike on the “stationary” Islamic State convoy; two vehicles are parked on a road and about a dozen fighters appear to be standing off to the side.

Video of the strike on the mortar position was not provided by CENTCOM. http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/08/centcom_videos_shows_airstrike.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29