Iraqi SOF within rifle range of Mosul; Aleppo counter-siege slows; DoD’s plan to use AI to weave social-media and satellite photos; Our fake web toaster was hacked in an hour; and just a bit more...
A dawn assault has brought Iraqi special forces within just 900 meters of Mosul’s city limits, AP reports. Baghdad’s Golden Division entered Karama, the first district inside eastern Mosul, and cleared Islamic State fighters from the village of Bazwaya, according to their commander, Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil.
AP sets the scene: “The Monday dawn assault saw armored vehicles, including Abrams tanks, move on the suburb of Bazwaya as allied artillery and airstrikes hit IS positions, drawing mortar and small arms fire.”
CNN, on location, adds: “The town [of Bazwaya] is split along its main road by a huge tunnel, wide and tall enough to drive a motorbike along. It was dug by an excavator and then torched by the Iraqi special forces.”
Here’s a picture of one of the machines ISIS used to dig tunnels east of Mosul. It was unearthed by Peshmerga troops. Kurdistan24 news has the story and photos, here.
More on Bazwaya: It is “still haunted by its recent occupiers,” CNN reports. “An old school was used to teach grenade tactics, with instructions written on the whiteboard. Its doorbells are marked by graffiti that bans ‘the strike force’ from entering, and half-prepared food rots in the kitchen. Nobody left here slowly. Elsewhere, a stolen Syrian army tank hides in the basement of a house, its ISIS driver having simply reversed it into the building basement to keep it out of the view of drones.”
ISIS is still a little inconsistent in how it defends turf around Mosul, AFP reports in this story they call “the tale of two villages.” Residents from “Tal al-Lazzagah, which lies in the Tigris Valley between Mosul and the offensive’s main staging base of Qayyarah, to the south,” reportedly chased ISIS fighters away after digging up some old AKs villagers had buried in the sand.
But the village of Safina, 45 kms south of Mosul, was one of the many in which ISIS chose to round all the civilians they could for use as human shields, leaving the town all but abandoned by the time Iraqi security forces arrived. More—including the story of an 83-year-old woman who says she avoided being rounded up by hiding inside a house used by ISIS as a local HQs—here.
Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated Popular Mobilization Forces began their advance on ISIS-held villages west of Mosul on Saturday, but so far have stuck to their commitment not to enter the city proper. The PMF called their operation a “lightning advance” to the city of Tal Afar, and claim to have liberated 10 villages in less than two days.
AP writes that nearly 15,000 PMF troops are involved: “Karim al-Nuri of the militias’ umbrella group, known as the Popular Mobilization Units, and Jaafar al-Husseini, a spokesman for unit member the Hezbollah Brigades, said that a total of some 15,000 Shiite fighters were now participating in the battle. The Iraqi military confirmed the figures, which, including army units, militarized police, special forces and Kurdish fighters would bring the total number of anti-IS forces in the offensive to over 40,000.”
From teddy bears to watches, toy trucks to mannequins with suicide vests—here’s a photo essay on ISIS IEDs from The Guardian.
As ISIS slowly degrades around the fringes of Mosul, CENTCOM chief, Gen. Joseph Votel, warns the group’s caliphate will take on a greater presence in the “virtual” domain—and that’s one of his chief worries at this stage in the group’s evolution. Votel spoke with CNN’s Peter Bergen to explain.
Family members of employees working at the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul were ordered by the State Department to leave Saturday due to “increased threats from terrorist groups throughout Turkey.” Read the full warning from State.
A raft of footage has emerged from the new rebel offensive to break the siege of Aleppo—a fight that appears to have slowed somewhat from its initial “shock” advance on government-held positions west of the city on Friday.
There has been drone footage a-plenty from the operations since Friday, including car bombs, tank assaults, artillery barrages, miserable scenes at hospitals, to allegations of chlorine gas attack (possibly on Assad’s own forces), and more car bombs, including this one with an almost unbelievable shockwave (at the 0:16 mark).
See also this footage as a drone flies right in front of what almost certainly appears to be an airstrike (around the 1:30 mark).
We have a pretty good list of who’s involved in this offensive on Aleppo, thanks to Thomas Joscelyn of The Long War Journal. “The fighting is led by groups belonging to the same two coalitions that attempted to break the siege earlier this year: Jaysh al Fath (“Army of Conquest”) and Fatah Halab (“Aleppo Conquest”). Two dozen or more organizations belong to these coalitions, or are closely allied with them.” Get a more robust listing, with generous descriptions of the groups and their recent histories, here.
Last week’s alleged strike on a school in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province was called possibly the deadliest since the Syrian war began. The White House late last week said the strike could only have been carried out by either Russian or Syrian jets. Russia’s defense ministry has now given at least three responses to the attack: (1) footage folks saw of the aftermath was actually “computer graphics,” not reality; (2) an American MQ-1B Predator drone may actually have been at fault since Russian MoD says they spotted one in the air near the strike area; and (3) the Russians have now brought 10 allegations of civilian casualties to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, OIR spox Col. James Dorrian wrote on Twitter Sunday, saying, “We will assess, but smells like a #firehoseoffalsehood.” Dorrian later added, “Russia seems intent on sliming us to divert attention from their indiscriminate bombing in Aleppo and other places in Syria.”
Meantime, OSINT investigators at Conflict Intelligence Team have done a pretty thorough analysis of their own, finding “both Syrian and possibly Russian aircraft were present near Hass. There is reason to believe that the attack on schools which killed dozens of children was perpetrated by the Syrian government air force, namely Su-22 bombers which dropped what appears to be ODAB-type fuel-air bombs. However, footage of a Su-24 above the airstrike site does not allow to exclude the possibility of the Russian Air Force being responsible for this attack.” Read their take in full, here.
While we’re on Russia-U.S. relations in the Middle East, Russia countered a U.S. claim of reckless flying late last week by—how else?—blaming the U.S. for a near-miss mid-air collision between the two countries’ aircraft on October 17 in southern Syria. U.S. officials had said Friday that near-misses occur “weekly,” and Russia’s response only concerned the October 17 incident, and none of the others flagged (vaguely) on Friday.
Heads up: Iranian state news says pro-Assad militias will move on Raqqa, making now at least three alliances (U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Turkish-backed troops and rebels, and now Iranian-backed soldiers) who say they will move on the ISIS-held city of 250,000. That, here.
And while we’re watching events on the horizon, Russia is reportedly sending three submarines to accompany its Mediterranean fleet. More from the Independent, here.
From Defense One
Here’s How the Pentagon Wants to Use Social Media On the Battlefield // Tech Editor Patrick Tucker: Artificial intelligence will weave open-source and satellite data into useful intelligence in real time, the Pentagon's No. 2 says.
The Shia Power Brokers of the New Iraq // Jack Watling, via The Atlantic: As the embattled country wages war on ISIS in the north, its future may be decided by clerics in the south.
Obama to Successor: Put Fed IT Under One Roof, For Its Own Protection // Nextgov’s Joseph Marks: Obama officials say they're preparing an “options paper” for the next president's transition team that envisions consolidating IT services similar to the way DISA works within the Defense Department.
We Built a Fake Web Toaster, and It Was Hacked in an Hour // The Atlantic’s Andrew McGill: It's really, really easy for hackers to find unsecured devices.
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The D Brief by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Their finest hour comes to an end: Oct. 31, 1940, was the final day of the Battle of Britain (according to British historians, anyway). (Send your friends this link: http://get.defenseone.com/d-brief/. And let us know your news: the-d-brief@defenseone.com.)
Another ugly airstrike in Yemen kills 60, including many prisoners in the western coastal city of Hodeidah. Reuters: “The prison held 84 inmates when it was struck three times late on Saturday, Hashem al-Azizi, deputy governor of the province of Hodeidah, told Reuters. The Saudi-led alliance that conducted the raid said it struck a ‘central security building’ used as a military command center by the Houthi rebels it is fighting. Local officials said the prison lies within a security complex but that only prison guards were present during the air strike… One of the strikes directly targeted the building, the witness said, bringing it down over the heads of the prisoners. Two others hit the gate of the complex and nearby administration buildings.” More here.
ICYMI: Going back to April 2015, “the U.S. and partner nations have intercepted five weapons shipments from Iran that were headed to the Houthis in Yemen,” NBC reported last week. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, said he believes "Iran has supplied weapons to the Houthis in Yemen — including coastal defense cruise missiles like the ones that were fired at US Navy ships earlier this month." More here.
Hillary Clinton’s newest email hot potato story has prompted Democrats to push the FBI to release info on alleged Trump campaign connections to Russian officials. The Daily Beast has more on those wrinkles, here.
Vince Vaughn skips World Series to hang with troops, vets. The Chicago Cubs played the first World Series game at Wrigley Field since 1945 on Friday night. So you would think Vince Vaughn — well-known actor and die-hard Cubs fan — would be there to mark this moment in history. He was instead marking another. Vaughn spent the evening in Washington at a special screening of Hacksaw Ridge, the story of Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Desmond Doss, an Army medic who refused to bear arms but rescued 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. Vaughn plays Sgt. Howell, Doss’ colorful, yet empathetic drill sergeant.
Before the screening, Vaughn noted that the Cubs were indeed playing, but they would take a backseat this evening. Afterwards, Col. Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient himself, moderated a Q&A with Vaughn, director Mel Gibson, and Luke Bracey, who plays one of the soldiers in Doss’ unit. Vaughn made it to Wrigley for Game 4 on Saturday night where he sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch. Hacksaw Ridge opens in theaters on Friday.
DC seen: The audience at the Navy Memorial theater was largely made up of current members of the military and some VIPs. Notable attendees included Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, Michèle Flournoy, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, and former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Lastly—“We’re surrounded. That simplifies the problem.” An upcoming new PBS special on the Battle of Chosin Reservoir tells the story of the embattled 1st Marine Division (and attached soldiers) who fought their way out of encirclement to the Korean coast, and forever attached unimaginable suffering and valor to the words “Frozen Chosin.” See an excerpt, including interviews with veterans of the battle, at Military Times, here.