Iraq/Syria: Is ISIS Flying Jets? UK to Deploy Reapers

• Is ISIL operating jets, as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims? There’s a Youtube video purportedly showing a jet landing at an ISIS-controlled base, but USCENTOM says they haven’t seen any evidence.

• This is a head-scratcher. Iraq floundered against a purged and weakened Iranian military for years, then their generals join ISIS which quickly becomes really competent? From which we may infer the “Saddam performance penalty” levied on Iraq’s Ba’athist military. Meanwhile, the Maliki performance penalty still applies to the Shi’ite region’s regime, and will take some time to undo.

• The UK is deploying its Reapers to fight ISIL. They can’t bring them home to Britain because of certification issues in civil airspace, so they might as well send them back to Iraq. The Royal Air Force doesn’t say where, but note the mention of an assistance program involving the Kurds.

• Danish F-16s carried out their 1st mission in northern Iraq last Thursday: The Local | FMN [in Danish].