101st brigade returns from ISIS fight after helping build up Iraqi Army

By Sean Kimmons, Army News Service

The commander of an infantry brigade that backed Iraqi forces in ridding the country of the ISIS caliphate remains optimistic on the future of the Iraqi Army as it continues to rebuild.

With about 2,000 Soldiers deployed across northern Iraq and in parts of Syria, the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team comprised most of Task Force Iraq, overseeing coalition support to Iraqi forces. 

The brigade’s nine-month deployment concluded last month. During it, the brigade had three major functions: intelligence and strike, advising and enabling the Iraqi Army, and training at the operational level.

One of its battalions was also attached to the U.S. Special Operations Command to assist in missions within Syria. 

“The key through all of this has been to maintain pressure on ISIS,” the commander, Col. Derek Thomson, told media Wednesday during an Army Current Operations Engagement Tour at the Pentagon.

The Iraqi Army, he said, has been under ongoing enemy contact for the past few years since ISIS invaded and established a so-called caliphate in the region. 

“Like any army in a rebuilding phase, it continues to improve,” he said. “They have a tough task in front of them. They have been in contact throughout.”

In March, U.S. military leaders announced the defeat of the physical caliphate of ISIS. Its founder and leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also killed in a U.S.-led raid on Saturday. 

But the threat is not over, Thomson said. 

“While significantly degraded, ISIS has remained an ideologically-driven organization of fighters and supporters who remain committed to the cause,” he said. 

Task Force Iraq’s primary mission, he said, was to support the Iraqi Security Forces to ensure a lasting defeat of ISIS. That mission is now in the hands of 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team. 

In the latest deployment, the task force conducted an array of targeting activities to locate ISIS fighters and helped the Iraqi military build operational plans to defeat them. In addition to coalition airstrikes, U.S. Soldiers also fired artillery at enemy positions in support of Iraqi ground maneuver, he said. 

“This activity was principally driven by our advisory teams located in the regional commands,” the colonel said. “And it involved a great deal of strategic leadership by our battalion command teams as they interacted with their senior Iraqi partners to develop a common picture of the enemy and to enable Iraqi Army action against them.” 

Soldiers also instructed Iraqi troops on specific tasks to expand their operational reach. Training included air assault exercises on their helicopters as well as medical training, marksmanship and teaching them what types of sensitive material to gather from enemy sites for intelligence efforts. 

The task force even assisted within the information domain by helping the Iraqi Army amplify its success over ISIS by getting the word out to the Iraqi people, he added. 

Some of the challenges faced by U.S. Soldiers during the deployment stemmed from the vast area they had to cover that included almost half of Iraq from Baghdad to Mosul. 

“We had quite of bit of ground to cover,” Thomson said. “But I think that’s also in our strength. It demonstrated a degree of agility. We did not need the larger footprint to accomplish this mission.”

On the sustainment side, 1st Lt. Robert MacKinnon, a logistics officer with the brigade, said it was difficult at times to distribute supplies to far-flung sites. 

“I will say it was a great learning opportunity for me,” he said. “It gave me invaluable experience as a logistics officer that you just can’t replicate at home station.”

Before the deployment, the brigade’s Soldiers conducted a rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center on Fort Polk, Louisiana, to hone their warfighter skills. They then received security force assistance training to help in their advising mission. 

Both types of training formed the “sweet spot” for being ready to support the Iraqi Army, the colonel said. 

“Being well rounded in those skills allowed us to be better advisors,” he said.

Task Force Commander Describes Assisting Iraqi Troops in Drive on Mosul

MAY 4, 2017 | BY DAVID VERGUN 

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Although the U.S. mission in Iraq is often referred to as one of advising and assisting, only about 25 percent of the 101st Airborne Division‘s 2nd Brigade Combat Team was doing that during its deployment to Iraq, which concluded in January, the brigade’s commander said at the Pentagon yesterday during a media roundtable discussion of the deployment. 

Army Col. Brett Sylvia, the brigade’s commander, told reporters that the other 75 percent of his Task Force Strike soldiers were engaged in route clearance, expedited communications, air and ground coordination, and logistics, which enabled Iraq to build up its forces up and get to their tactical assembly area for the push into eastern Mosul, which began Oct. 17 as part of the effort to liberate Iraq’s second-largest city from the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

When Task Force Strike arrived in Iraq in April 2016, the Air Force was delivering all the precision strike capability to the Iraqis fighting ISIS, Sylvia said. Over the course of the deployment, Task Force Strike soldiers augmented much of that strike capability with their own artillery and unmanned aerial vehicle assets. About 6,000 artillery rounds were fired, he added.

Sylvia said he was pleased with the authorities the U.S. commanders on the ground were given to call for fire to enable the Iraqi ground forces to move forward. In March 2016, the month before the task force arrived in Iraq, the authority was granted not only to the general in charge of the operation, but also for colonels, lieutenant colonels, and in at least one case, a captain near the front of the fighting, he explained.

Although the Iraqis did the fighting, some limited situations arose when U.S. soldiers accompanied them to provide “niche capability,” Sylvia said. For example, he said, soldiers accompanied an Iraqi battalion on a bridge-building mission on the Tigris River, where the enemy had blown up the bridge. The soldiers advised them on establishing area security as the U.S.-made bridge was erected, he told reporters.

Militia fighters not attached to the Iraqi army who also were fighting ISIS were pretty much segregated from Iraqi forces, Sylvia said. U.S. forces were aware of their location and movements, he added, but did not interact with them in any way.

Threat From Above

It’s been some time since the U.S. faced a threat from the sky, Sylvia said. During the battle for Mosul, UAVs began appearing in the air in and around the city, and it was quickly determined that they did not belong to friendly forces.

In one day alone, 12 appeared, he noted — mostly quadcopters operated by Wi-Fi with about 45 minutes of flight time.

At first, he said, the enemy used them for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and to obtain video for use as propaganda on social media sites.

Over time, Sylvia said, the enemy managed to mount 40 mm grenades on the UAVs and drop them. It was primitive, such as when World War I pilots tossed bombs out of their airplanes by hand, he said. It’s not precision bombing, but it’s more effective than their indiscriminate bombing, the colonel told reporters.

Over time, U.S. forces employed countermeasures that stopped or slowed their flight, enabling Iraqi ground forces to shoot them out of the sky, he said, noting that the new threat from the air led to dusting off old manuals on how to respond to threats from the air with countermeasures such as camouflage.

Best Day in Iraq

Sylvia said he clearly recalls his best day in Iraq. It was Christmas Day, and Iraqi forces, who are Muslim, invited him and his soldiers to a Christian church just outside Mosul to attend services. ISIS had gutted the church, but the Iraqis had rebuilt it with their own money.

“It was a powerful symbol, and was amazing,” he said of the visit to the church, adding that he hopes the relationship forged with the Iraqis will be enduring.

Task Force Strike returned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in January, replaced in Iraq by the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.