U.S. F-18s Over Iraq
June 18th, 2014I’ll update this with a better source when it becomes available.
Via: Daily Mail:
The United States began flying surveillance missions over Iraq in F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets on Wednesday, it emerged late in the afternoon.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked President Obama for air strikes against the Islamist offshoots of al-Qaeda who have been carving a wide swath through his country.
So far the White House has been unwilling to agree, but the surveillance missions mark the first declared U.S. flyovers since American troops left Iraq at the end of 2011.
Reports first surfaced on Twitter from ABC, NBC and Fox News about the sorties, which are taking off and landing on the USS George H.W. Bush, an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
The Obama administration had already authorized ‘manned and unmanned’ surveillance flights, Fox News reported. But F-18s are not surveillance aircraft.
They are attack planes.
A U.S. official hinted to Fox that part of the strategy is to project strength by rolling out the big guns even on routine video and photo missions.
‘It’s not so much about looking as it is being seen,’ the official said.
