US Uses Apache Helicopters for the First Time to Hit Islamic State Militants

The U.S. military on Sunday started using Apache helicopters against the Islamic State militants in Iraq for the first time.

The U.S. move comes in the wake of a request from the Iraqi security forces to introduce apache helicopters for strengthening their efforts on the ground in Fallujah, a town in Anbar Province of Iraq.

 Fierce fighting is going on between the security forces and the Islamic State militants in the town.

The helicopters struck at Islamic State mortar positions, a bunker and other units in Fallujah on Sunday and for a second time on Monday, said a spokesman for Central Command, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Apache helicopters are equipped with more sensors and targeting devices than other aircrafts used in the operation. They are also equipped with hellfire missiles which can strike targets many miles away.

Rick Brennan, a senior political scientist at Rand Corp said that the use of Apache helicopters greatly enhances the U.S. military capability to view what the Islamic State militants are doing. He also said this method provides close air support to Iraqi security forces without using ground troops.

 However, Christopher Hammer, a former navy aviator and analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said that a great deal of risk was involved in the use of the helicopters by the U.S. military.

"Fixed-wing aircraft flying at 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) are completely immune from the type of weapons that ISIS fighters have, but a helicopter is not," Harmer said. 

"When you're flying a helicopter 150 feet (50 meters) above the ground, that helicopter can be shot with a rocket-propelled grenade or a heavy machine gun ... so, yes, it is much more dangerous," he added, reports Reuters.

But he also said that helicopter would be more effective than fixed-wing aircrafts in supporting Iraqi ground troops as the former flies lower and slowly and thus can spot out individual targets easily.