Monday, August 18th, 2014 | Posted by WorldTribune.com
Central Command confirms ISIL operating U.S. armored personnel carriers in Iraq
Special to WorldTribune.com
WASHINGTON — The United States has acknowledged that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was operating an advanced armored personnel carrier captured in Iraq.
U.S. Central Command cited the Mine Resistant-Ambush Protected vehicle, manufactured by Oshkosh Defense and deemed the leading wheeled armored platform for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq.
U.S. MRAP captured by ISIL
U.S. MRAP captured by ISIL
“U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Iraq today, with a mix of fighter and remotely piloted aircraft successfully conducting airstrikes on two ISIL-armed vehicles and an ISIL-operated mine-resistant ambush-protected [MRAP] vehicle northeast of Irbil,” Centcom said on Aug. 14.
Centcom said U.S. fighter-jets struck an MRAP during a series of sorties in Kurdistan. The statement said the fighter-jets required two air strikes to eliminate the platform, designed to protect against a range of improvised explosive devices.
“At approximately 11:40 a.m. EDT, U.S. aircraft struck an MRAP, located near the site of the previous strikes against the two armed vehicles,” Centcom said. “After initial assessment, U.S. aircraft returned at approximately 12:55 p.m. EDT and destroyed the MRAP.”
This marked the first time the U.S. military reported the ISIL capture of MRAPs. Officials said the vehicles, protected by Israeli-origin armor, were included among thousands of combat ground platforms seized by ISIL during its sweep of northern Iraq in June 2014.
ISIL has also been operating the U.S.-origin Humvee combat vehicle as well as artillery batteries. Officials said armored Humvees were transported to Syria for attacks on Sunni rebels in the northern province of Dir Al Zour.
Officials said ISIL was using an undetermined number of MRAPs in the battle for Kurdistan. The Kurdish Regional Government has pleaded for weapons and vehicles to stop the ISIL advance.
“Kurdish forces are in an asymmetrical war against an organized and well-armed terrorist group,” Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to KRG President Massoud Barzani, told the European Union on Aug. 15. “With no doubt, rapid equipping of peshmerga forces with heavy and sophisticated weapons will change the equation in the battlefield in favor of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.”
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/08/18/u-s-confirms-air-strike-destroyed-u-s-origin-armored-vehicle-operated-isil/
