Inside the US-Led Coalition's Fight Against ISIS

[Music] an hour north of baghdad these iraqi forces have gathered to face an old enemy isis the group has been hanging on to its influence in iraq through sleeper cells after its territorial defeat in 2017. so right now these guys are headed into some of the smaller villages around this area to try to get intelligence about where these isis fighters might be they're told there's about 30 in the area but they just don't know what they where they are what they're capable of just miles away in a baghdad office tucked away in the heavily fortified green zone the u.s led coalition forces are monitoring and lending support from above by coordinating airstrikes from their central command center vice got rare access inside so walk us through what the strike was uh you get the intel for strike and then i think in the analysis afterwards what we saw was not only a strike but then a secondary explosion there that tells us that we hit ordinance that was in the cave and then and then it exploded so a good strike so the bulk of the coalition's responsibility kind of stems from this room if you go conventional side yes the bulk of that is now here and helping them kind of plan iraqi operations so intelligence error type support and then divestments those are kind of the three main pillars that we that we assist [Music] isis being pushed underground didn't mean the end of the war really it meant that the us-led coalition had to change its strategies for a newly unseen enemy how many strikes have there been this year the numbers that you'll get bounced around sometimes will tell you engagements so one strike approval may have three or four engagements in it right so if you hear these huge numbers because the number is like up to like 30 000. where yeah uh we are 15 000 since 2014 wow yeah that's that a lot or a little it sounds low to me i think there's i think the number potentially is higher we are more and more going to very precise types of targeting trying to get away from mass types of of conflict in areas so it's a different type of a campaign as you get closer and closer to um non-combat operations and more towards law enforcement type operations the u.s cut the number of troops in iraq to about 2 500 in january but despite the reduction central command said it had no plans for a total withdrawal anytime soon with all these strikes with all these operations i mean this room alone it seems like american forces are still a war here does it feel like you're still at wild yes the guy on the ground doesn't know the difference whether that was an iraqi f-16 that dropped that bomb or whether that was a you know air force f-15 we are trying to remove ourselves and make this an iraqi face an iraqi problem and for the most part we've done it as the coalition pushes its successes iraq is still a country battered by many issues like a tinking economy and protests against government corruption all while isis continues its attacks in january this year a twin suicide bomb attack in baghdad claimed by isis killed 32 people but the coalition generals still are convinced that the slow withdrawal is the correct path this country was ravaged by an american war and is put in a position now where they're kind of leaning on the americans and the coalition support is that an issue for the next few years in this country for all its vulnerabilities and challenges having international involvement in this country will be the thing that will also help give it its stability and safety our portion of this effort is to simply hold the ground that we've got and let the policy makers and the politicians get to that agreement that equilibrium there's consistent attacks on american forces all over it do you feel that pressure do you feel like it's time to go it's whenever the government of iraq turned around and say that our mission is accomplished and that they don't need us anymore they still believe that we've still got some work to do in the isis and to better the iraqi security services so whilst we're here under their invitation then we will stay committed it is literally a yin yang balancing act right and as as we've as we're removing they are improving respectively generals you talk about the improvements here but for the everyday iraqis that we talk to on the streets things are getting not only the same as they were that led to isis but worse it seems like this cycle could just play out i mean how is this different this time from any time before like any country you know this country has serious challenges it requires a government of raqqa and firm leadership to get after all those other sources which if they are left unaddressed for example internally displaced camps in northeast syria or indeed elsewhere within iran the detainees getting them through a proper judicial process and into a prison all those that they all need addressing because any one of them could be a tinderbox for the next growth of diash [Music] it's been about 20 years since coalition forces led by americans have come here fought in iraq do you see an end in sight for their military presence here in rome no but it's it's a different style of military presence the military presence is is one of collaboration coordination and cooperation because if it isn't our nations that are involved then it'll be others and we want to make sure not just for iraq but within sort of more wider global security is that it's the right nations doing the right things with the right people you

Channel: VICE News

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Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2020, isis, iraq, sleeper cells

Id: FfOUMmqkMiA

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/linesnotnines]

So we’re just accepting posts from Iraq now?