KEY HIGHLIGHTS
US Special Forces and CIA have launched secret drone offensives in Syria to target senior ISIL terrorist operatives.
The clandestine operation is a targeted killing program run separately from the broader US military campaigns against senior terrorist figures.
According to a report on Washington Post, the Central Intelligence Agency and the US Joint Special Operations Command are both flying armed drones over Syria.
The operation which kicked off last week is targeted at ‘high value’ Islamic State operatives. It is in these drone operations through which a British militant Junaid Hussain believed to be an architect of the group’s cyber activities was killed. The operation has also claimed hundreds of Islamic State fighters.
ASSESSMENT
The covert program has been launched a year after US President Barack Obama authorized an open ended offensives to degrade and ultimately destroy the brutal militancy in Syria and Iraq.
The operations which represent significant involvement of the CIA in the war in the Levant where ‘Daesh’(Islamic State) terrorists continue to control huge swathes of land and despite more than 2,400 airstrikes in the past year, the militant are still holding key locations in Syria and Iraq. Islamic State militant group has also set camp in the Libyan city of Sirte.
Obama’s decision to enlist the CIA and special operations forces reflects a growing frustration within the US counter-terrorism community that conventional airstrikes have so far failed to degrade ‘Daesh’ as anticipated.
The covert program complicates Obama’s goal of gradually shifting US drone operations from the CIA to the Defense Department and return CIA which is the nation’s spy agency to the traditional role of espionage.
SUMMARY
As the war against Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq gains momentum, US is seen to be doing the unthinkable by involving as many state security arms as possible to counter the militants who have overrun some cities in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
US has also engaged the National Security Agency (NSA) tasked with penetrating the communications network of the Islamic State group. Islamic State relies heavily on social media to broadcast their propaganda and to attract recruits.
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