The Drone Wars in Iraq and Syria

by Ian Bach   3-21-15
The Wars in Iraq and Syria have been the first Wars that the enemy is also using drones in. So far it seems like everyone has drones. Jabhat al-Nusra has used them in Syria, the FSA has them in Aleppo and Damascus, ISIS has used them in Syria and Iraq, Iraqi Shia militias have Iranian ones, Iranians have theirs, and the U.S. of course has them. It seems like the only people without drones are the Kurds. 

The western media and the blogger community has fell in love with the Kurds and their struggle. Yet the governments of the West have not properly backed them. The governments in the Middle East are not about to arm the Kurds for various reasons most of which is their own fears. 

The U.S. gives weapons and ammo directly to the Iraqi Gov and will not give them directly to the Kurds. Meanwhile Iraq Gov is dragging their feet in giving those arms and ammo to the Kurds. The Germans, Danish and Italians have supplied limited amounts of light and medium weapons and ammo, and they are also offering training to the Kurdish forces, but it is not nearly enough when you consider the amount of work the Kurds have done in the fight against the #Daeshbags of the so called (rolls eyes) Islamic State. - Ian Bach

Here is some excerpts of a few News Articles regarding Drones:
From "War is Boring"

A Bunch of Iranian Drones Have Crashed in Iraq

"Shortly after Mosul fell to Islamic State forces in June 2014, Iran began flying Ababil-3 UAVs out of Baghdad’s Al Rasheed air base in order to track the jihadists, according to The New York Times."
Iran’s Drones Are Back in Iraq
"In recent years Iran’s drones have buzzed into action over Israel, Syria and Lebanon. And now Iranian drones are returning to the scene of their birth—the skies of Iraq, where Tehran’s flying robots saw their combat debut during the 198os Iran-Iraq war."
"Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is deploying the Mohajer-4 surveillance drone and its cousins—descendants of the country’s first Mohajer-1—in its bid to halt Islamic State jihadists in Iraq."
Iran Has a Dogfighting Drone

"Hatami told the assembled press that the air-defense Mohajer can shoot down enemy fighter jets, helicopters and even cruise missiles. But a closer look at the air-to-air drone reveals that it’s not quite the engineering marvel the good general would have you believe."

The Guardian - US drone shot down by Syrian Gov over Latakia a beach resort city relatively untouched by the War.

"Syria’s state news agency, SANA, has published a video purportedly showing the wreckage of a “hostile” surveillance plane and said it was shot down in the same area where the Pentagon confirmed contact was lost with a Predator drone."

"SANA said the Syrian military had downed the plane in northern Latakia and the authorities were conducting an investigation to determine who it belonged to."

"In a statement on Tuesday, the Pentagon said it had lost contact with an unarmed Predator drone but could not confirm whether it was shot down."

US Says It Struck Islamic State Drone in Iraq

"Associated Press | Mar 19, 2015

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military says it bombed an Islamic State drone aircraft in Iraq that was being used for battlefield surveillance."

"A spokesman for the U.S. military command in charge of the conflict against the Islamic State said Wednesday that the drone was a small, unarmed hand-held type of the sort that can be purchased commercially."

"The spokesman, Maj. Kim Michelsen, said that Islamic State fighters had been flying the drone for a short time before placing it in a vehicle. A U.S. airstrike hit the vehicle near the city of Fallujah in western Iraq. He said the drone was targeted because it was being used for surveillance along IS front lines."

It seems like Unmanned Vehicles UAV's / Drones are here to stay and it is not just the USA using them anymore the cat is out of the bag and what is next is anyones guess - I.B.

Iran unveils replica of the U.S. stealth drone that they captured in 2011

The above video is footage of Iran's replica of the stealth U.S. drone that they captured in December 2011. Iran has reverse engineered the Drone and is now flying the replica Drone. 

Video of captured U.S. stealth spy drone in Iran

Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident

On 4 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it, after initial reports from Western news sources inaccurately claimed that it had been "shot down".^[1] The United States government initially denied the claims but later President Obama acknowledged that the downed aircraft was a US drone and requested that Iran return it.^[2][3]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Capture of the drone
• 2 US acknowledgement
• 3 Complaint to UN Security Council
• 4 Request for return by the United States
• 5 Reverse engineering of the drone
• 6 Decoded footage obtained from captured US drone
• 7 References

Aleppo: Syrian Army downs 2nd al Nusra Front drone in 4 Months in the north of Aleppo

BY LEITH FADEL ON JANUARY 19, 2015 MIDDLE EAST
Earlier today, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) downed a reconnaissance drone that belonged to the Al-Qaeda linked “Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) in the northeastern Aleppo village of Sayfaat. The reconnaissance drone was seen by the SAA flying over northeastern Aleppo, capturing images of the latter from a low altitude; this made the drone easy to spot, despite its relatively small size. This is the second drone that the Syrian Army has downed in the Aleppo Governorate over the last 4 months.

The Al-Nusra Front – backed by Jaysh Al-Mujahiddeen – attempted to infiltrate into the Al-Zahra Association Quarter in western Aleppo, attacking the SAA and National Defense Forces from the western perimeter. The infiltration attempt was thwarted after the Al-Nusra Front and Jaysh Al-Mujahiddeen were caught in the open and subsequently pounded by loyalist gunfire that resulted in their withdrawal.

In southern Aleppo, the SAA and NDF continued their offensive at Al-‘Amariyya, targeting the Islamic Front’s largest militia “Harakat ‘Ahrar ‘Ahrar Al-Sham” (Liberators of the Levant Movement) in the Central District. The majority of firefights the loyalist experienced were reported from the Al-‘Amariyya-Sheikh Sa’eed Road in southern Aleppo; this front has recently expanded since the arrival of reinforcements.

Also in southern Aleppo, the SAA was able to obstruct a counter-offensive by the militants of Harakat ‘Ahrar Al-Sham at Bastaan Al-Qasir (Al-Qasir Orchards) after almost 72 straight hours of non-stop fighting. According to a military source, Harakat ‘Ahrar Al-Sham suffered an imperative defeat in this area, due in large part to the significant casualties they experienced during the battle.

The SAA conducted a number of raids on Islamic Front positions near Jabboul Lake that resulted in the destruction of 2 pick-up trucks mounted with 23mm anti-aircraft machine guns and the death of 9 militants from the latter.

Firefights in the imperative village of Al-Bureijj located in northeastern Aleppo intensified on Monday morning, as both loyalist and rebel forces exchanged a barrage of gunfire and artillery shells in order to expand their control over enemy positions. Despite the fierce clashes, both sides were unable to gain any significant ground to create a map change.

The Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) Coalition targeted a number of Al-Nusra Front hideouts in the western Aleppo village of Kafr Halab, destroying a multitude of vehicles and hideouts belonging to the latter in this area.