[Mil.com] U.S. warplanes have been flying close air support missions for Iraqi and Kurdish forces through a complex tactical arrangement that avoids having U.S. troops on the front lines to call in the strikes, an Air Force general said Monday.
"We think itÂ’s being very effective right now," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the assistant deputy chief of staff for Operations.
Harrigian said that Kurdish and Iraqi forces in close contact with Islamic State fighters have been calling in suggested targets to U.S joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) based at Joint Operations Centers in Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
The JTACs then check the suggested targets with live stream video from intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets overhead "so that we know where the front lines are" to plan strike missions, Harrigian said. |