Ground Report

Department of Defense Press Briefing on Operations in Syria by Lt. Gen. Mayville in the Pentagon Briefing Room held on September 23, 2014

As you all know, last night and early this morning U.S. and partner nation forces began undertaking military actions against terrorists in Syria, using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk land-attack missiles. Our strikes were against two particular groups: ISIL and the Khorasan group.

The decision to conduct these strikes was made yesterday by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander-in-chief. These strikes were taken as part of the president’s comprehensive strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL and to protect the United States and its partners.

Our coalition partners in the fight against ISIL, which in these strikes included Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, with Qatar in a supporting role, continue to be a critical part of our strategy.

Secretary Hagel appreciates their partnership, and, in particular, the hard work and the strong leadership shown by our Central Command Commander General Lloyd Austin who gave the secretary an update on the operation throughout it.

We do not coordinate with the Assad regime. While the United States did inform the Syrian regime through our U.N. ambassador of our intent to take action, there was no coordination and no military-to-military communication.

In terms of the Khorasan group, which is a network of seasoned Al Qaida veterans, these strikes were undertaken to disrupt imminent attack plotting against the United States and western targets. These targets have established a safe haven in Syria to plan external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices, and recruit westerners to conduct operations. The United States took action to protect our interests and to remove their capability to act.

In a minute, I will turn it over to the Joint Staff’s J3, director of operations, Lieutenant General Bill Mayville, to provide more detail about the operation. But before I do, I think it’s important to note just a few things.

First, and while I’ll let General Mayville get into the details of our assessments, our initial indication is that these strikes were very successful.

Second, while it’s not our policy to discuss future operations, I can tell you that last night’s strikes were only the beginning. For this reason, there may be some tactics, techniques, and procedures that we just won’t be able to address here today to preserve options that we may want available to us in the future.

And finally, we’re going to leave it up to our partner nations to detail the specifics of their involvement. I think you may have already seen statements by the Jordanians and by — and by Bahrain, as well, acknowledging their involvement.

And I’ll also just note that Secretary Hagel’s immensely proud of the U.S. personnel who participated in and supported these missions. And he deeply appreciates their service and their sacrifices.

With that, I’ll turn it over to General Mayville.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM MAYVILLE: Good morning.

Last night, at the direction of the president of the United States, U.S. military forces, under the command of United States Central Command, in conjunction with coalition partners in the region, executed a series of strikes against ISIL and other terrorist targets in Syria.

Coalition strikes targeted ISIL training camps, headquarters, command and control facilities, logistical nodes, armored vehicles and leadership.

U.S. military forces also executed unilateral precision strikes against the Khorasan Group, an A.Q.-affiliated terrorist organization located in northwest Syria.

The intelligence reports indicated that the Khorasan Group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against Western targets and potentially the U.S. homeland.

Last night’s strikes were organized in three waves.

The first wave began around midnight in Syria, or 8:30 Eastern Standard Time.

I draw your attention to the map. The first slide, please.

In the first wave strikes, the USS Arleigh Burke in the Red Sea and the USS Philippine Sea in the northern Arabian Gulf launched more than 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles in eastern and northern Syria.

As you look at that slide, it is the target area around Aleppo and Ar-Raqqah.

The majority of the Tomahawk strikes were against Khorasan Group compounds, their manufacturing workshops and training camps.

The second wave consisted of F-22 Raptors in their first combat role, F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16s, B-1 bombers and drones. They launched from bases in the region around 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time against targets in northern Syria. The targets included ISIL headquarters, training camps barracks and combat vehicles.

The final wave occurred shortly after midnight Eastern Standard time. F-18s from the USS George H.W. Bush in the northern Arabian Gulf and regionally based U.S. F-16s, among others, attacked targets in eastern Syria, to include ISIL training camps and combat vehicles, principally in that circle to the far east, around Dayr az-Zawr.

Coalition partners participated in both the second and third waves, supporting with a range of combat capabilities that began with combat air patrols to actual strikes on targets. The preponderance of coalition support was in the third wave.

Ninety-six percent of all the delivered munitions were precision-guided munitions. And I’d like now to show you several before and after pictures that highlight the effect of these munitions.

I’m good on the next slide.

Next slide, please.

This is — this first picture shows an ISIL finance center in Raqqah. It’s a before and after. On the left is the before and on the right as you look at it, is the after. It was engaged with Tomahawk Cruise missiles, fired from the USS Philippine Sea.

Now, the intended target was the communications array on the roof of the building. The Tomahawk Cruise missiles detonated as air bursts with the effects focusing on the communications array.

And, as you can see, on the right hand side in the picture, the after picture, the rooftop communications is heavily damaged, while the surrounding structure remains largely untouched.

If I can go to the next slide, please.

The second picture shows an ISIL command and control building in Raqqah that was targeted by U.S. Air Force F-22s during the second wave of strikes. This strike was the first time the F-22 was used in a combat role. The flight of the F-22s delivered GPS-guided munitions, precision munitions targeting, again, only the right side of the building. You can see on the left-hand side, the before shot, and then you can see as you look at it on the right-hand side, the after shot.

And you can see that the control — the command and control center where it was located in the building was destroyed.

If I can go to the third slide.

The third and final picture is a residence near the town of Abu Kamal. It’s along the border between Syria and Iraq. This was a residential area that had been used for a training site and for a logistics site for ISIL fighters. It was engaged with multiple GPS-guided missiles — munitions fired from F-18s launched from the USS George H. W. Bush.

And as you can see, the aircraft targeted locations within the boundaries, within the fence line of the residence. There is video here that shows exactly how that was done. So give me a moment here to switch the video and I’ll let you look at that as well, of this same target.

Again, you’ll note that the effects of the strike were contained within the boundaries of the target area. As these pictures in the video highlight, the strikes involved multiple aircraft and cruise missiles from several countries.

It was through the careful planning and coordination of U.S. Central Command’s combined arms operations — combined air operations center located in the region that these strikes were successful with minimal collateral damage.

Last night’s strikes are the beginning of a credible and sustainable persistent campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. Our immediate tasks are to continue the degradation of ISIL in Syria and Iraq, to build and strengthen regional partners, and to build a regional coalition; to assist in placing Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga forces on the offensive; to support the broader diplomatic efforts in the region; to implement a Syrian train-and-equip program; and to continue to work with Iraqi security forces and ministries.”

Source: Department of Defense