Limited effectiveness of US-led air strikes emphasises ground weakness
Limited capacity of US-led air attacks highlights lack of ground forces
After two months, the US-led aerial campaign in Iraq has hardly dented the core of the Islamic State group's territory. The extremist fighters have melted into urban areas when needed to elude the threat, and they have even succeeded in taking new territory from an Iraqi army that still buckles in the face of the militants.
In neighbouring Syria, days of air strikes have been unable to stop militants on the verge of capturing a strategic town on the Turkish border. The US-led coalition has launched a series of strikes aimed at preventing the extremist group from seizing Kobani. An activist group said the strikes killed at least 45 Islamic State militants since late Monday, forcing the group to withdraw from parts of the town.
"The airstrikes have helped. They were good strikes but not as effective as we want them to be," said Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations committee. "Kobani is still in danger and the airstrikes should intensify in order to remove the danger."
The limited results show the central weakness of the campaign. There is only so much that can be done from the air to defeat an extremist force that has swept over much of Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State fighters have proven elusive and flexible, able to reorganise to minimise the blows.
And more importantly, there are almost no allied forces on the ground able to capitalise on the air strikes and take back territory from the militants.
The exception is Iraqi Kurdish fighters, the most effective forces in Iraq, who have made some modest gains in the past week.
That only highlights how others have proven unable to do the same. The Iraqi military is undermined by corruption and command problems.
In Syria, rebels supported by Washington are in no position to move against the extremists, and Syria's Kurds are not as well armed as Iraq's.
The US launched air strikes in Iraq on August 8 and in Syria on September 23. Several European nations are participating in Iraq, but not in Syria, where the US was joined by a coalition of Arab allies. US officials have warned repeatedly that the campaign could take years.
The Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, contended last week that the strikes had hampered the militants.
Before the strikes, he said, "they pretty much had free rein. They don't have that free rein any more, because they know we're watching from the air. They have dispersed, whereas before they were more structurally cohesive in certain places".
Most of the success for the air campaign has been in rural, open areas of northern Iraq. Last week, air strikes paved the way for the Iraqi Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga to surge into a string of towns held by the extremists near the Syrian border.
The Kurdish offensive is aiming for the town of Sinjar, and if they capture it, the Kurds would secure a main road in and out of Syria that is a militant supply line.
However, the planes have largely avoided Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and Islamic State's biggest stronghold, or the nearby town of Tal Afar, apparently to avoid civilian casualties that would boost the group's support among the region's Sunnis.
Canada to join airstrike coalition
Canadian lawmakers have voted to join the international coalition launching air strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq.
Parliamentarians led by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday carried the vote, 157 to 134, in favour of the six-month mission. Both the opposition New Democrats and Liberals voted against it, saying they feared the mission could become a quagmire.
Six hundred air crew and other personnel, along with six fighter jets and several other military aircraft, will now head to the Middle East.
Harper has ruled out sending ground combat troops.
But 69 special forces soldiers already on the ground will continue to advise security forces fighting the Islamic State group in the north of Iraq.
The White House welcomed Canada's decision to deploy "fighter and refuelling aircraft, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft".
"Canadians and Americans have fought alongside each other in several major conflicts over the past century, and we are grateful for Canada's further contribution against terrorism," a spokesman said.
US President Barack Obama last month outlined plans for a broad international coalition to defeat Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.
The coalition, which includes Arab countries, intends to "significantly degrade the capabilities of ISIL, specifically its ability to engage in military movements of scale or to operate bases in the open", Harper said last Friday.
The military mission is supported by 64 per cent of Canadians, according to a poll published by newspaper.
