Carlisle was careful not to share all of the Air Force’s secrets to include the location of the building but this is how he told the story at the recent breakfast meeting in Washington D.C. hosted by the Air Force Association.
“The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, they’re combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities for ... ISIL. And these guys go: ‘We got an in.’ So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [Joint Direct Attack Munitions] take that entire building out.”
As the Aviationist says:
Although the U.S. Air Force did not release any further information about the location of the headquarters or the aircraft that carried out the attack, the story is quite interesting as it proves that not only are social media used by ISIS for propaganda and recruiting purposes, they are also used by U.S. intel team to identify ground targets, supplementing ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) activities conducted with the “usual” platforms, like satellites, spyplanes and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
Carlisle also gave some statistics during his talk:
Carlisle used his speech to outline the amount of destruction by the Air Force and coalition aircraft, including 4,200 strikes, dropping 14,000 weapons, resulting in about 13,000 enemy fighters killed. The coalition has destroyed more than 1,000 vehicles and 50 improvised explosive device factories, and most of the "cash cows" bringing money into the group.
He claims the U.S. has disrupted 90% of IS's oil collection and refining capacity.
I'm not buying all of his statistics. And I see he didn't mention the flip side of the coin -- the 2,300 Humvees IS has taken from Iraqi forces since it took Mosul. Or the gains ISIS has made in Syria. ISIS is also expanding in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Libya and other parts of Africa.
Here's a recent New York Times graphic showing how ISIS expands.
