“If you can provide me with the appropriate intelligence we can start doing (air strikes) within 24 hours,” Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who served as the Air Force’s first deputy chief of staff for intelligence told the Daily Beast. “There are a variety of means do this, whether you are talking about long-range, high-payload aircraft or smaller aircraft. With the requisite intelligence information you can start again in 24 hours,” he added.
The Pentagon is reportedly moving the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush into the Persian Gulf to provide Obama with options for possible airstrikes against ISIL militants who have captured two provincial capitals this week, namely Tikrit in Salahuddin Province and Mosul in the northern province of Nineveh.
US air bases near Iraq also have dozens of more fighters and bombers. “No question we could strike anytime,” said another senior retired Air Force officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said that the US could also divert its assets from Afghanistan to Iraq.
Obama on Friday said the United States “will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq,” but that he would be reviewing a range of other options in coming days.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=156352&cid=31&fromval=1
14/6/14
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Related:
Αυτή τη φορά, οι ΗΠΑ δεν θα στείλουν στρατεύματα στο Ιράκ...
Kerry says U.S. will act soon on Iraq, but at request of Baghdad government
Iraq Carries out New Plan to Defend Baghdad (use of technology such as [observation] balloons and cameras)
Iran sends elite troops to aid Iraq against insurgents
China said on Friday that it was watching security developments in Iraq closely after Islamist fighters captured two more towns in a sweep south, and offered the government in Baghdad whatever help it can give....
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Former UN and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said Sunday the unrest sweeping Iraq stemmed from the international community's negligence of the conflict in neighboring Syria....
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The international community "unfortunately neglected the Syrian problem and did not help to resolve it. This is the result," said Brahimi, who resigned from his post as UN-Arab League representative to Syria in May.
He stressed that he had told the UN Security Council in November that the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' was "ten times more active in Iraq than in Syria".
Brahimi added that Iran, a key ally of the government in Baghdad, had "its place" in the region, pointing to the "de facto cooperation between the United States and Iran" on the crisis in Iraq.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=156517&cid=56&fromval=1
15/6/14