We’re not here to freak you out. Rather, we’re here to clear up some erroneous news — per United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and the entire Pentagon — that’s been floating around the web lately regarding a U.S. warplane that was shot down by a band of terrorists in the Middle East.
The faction in question? You know them as ISIS. Or ISIL. Or the Islamic State. Or IS. Daesh. Whatever.
Over the weekend they put out false reports that the aircraft went down in Iraq’s Anbar province, and that every crew member onboard was killed.
There is no truth to reports of ISIL downing a US aircraft near Anbar. All US & Coalition aircraft accounted for at this time @CJTFOIR
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 25, 2016
Nope.
Last week, the U.S.-led coalition carried out over 70 airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria. None of those missions ended with a plane in wreckage. They all returned to their respective airbases safely.
This from the International Business Times:
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced earlier this month that the Pentagon would send an additional 560 U.S. troops to Iraq to help take back the city of Mosul, the de facto capital of the Islamic State in Iraq. There are roughly 4,600 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the Washington Post.
“We’re going to need airfield operations, and if you want to go in concentric circles around that we’re going to also have a logistics footprint there to facilitate the flow of goods and supplies and personnel through that airfield,” Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time. “We’ll have a security envelope around that. We’ll have a communications capability there and a command-and-control or headquarters unit there, as well. There’s nothing really very sexy in any of that, but it’s all very necessary to keep the campaign moving forward.”
Stay tuned to the blog for any further developments regarding this story.