US Stations Black Hawks in Northern Iraq for Search and Rescue Missions
The United States has stationed more Black Hawk helicopters in northern Iraq to make it easier to mount rescue missions should a coalition pilot crash during operations against the Islamic State.
The New York Times reports that the helicopters will be sent to the city of Erbil, Iraq, which is the largest Kurdish city in Iraq. The announcement comes just days after it was learned that IS killed a downed pilot of the Jordanian Air Force by burning him alive. The move should help to reassure Arab allies in the coalition who have grown skittish since the downing of the Jordanian pilot.
It was recently revealed that the United Arab Emirates stopped participating in airstrikes against ISIS after the Jordanian pilot was captured.
The decision to station the Black Hawks in Erbil was a response to the Emirates refusal to participate in the airstrikes, according to the Times. At the time the Jordanian pilot was captured, the nearest search and rescue team was based out of Kuwait. Stationing the helicopters in Erbil will greatly reduce the teams' travel times and increase their chances of success.
It is not yet known if the positioning of the search and rescue teams in Erbil will be enough to get the Emirates to again participate in airstrikes.
Reuters reports that Jordan continued to carry out its revenge against ISIS for the death of the pilot. The Jordanian Air Force carried out a number of strikes against ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria. The planes flew over the home town of the deceased pilot on their way back from the strikes.
The strikes come after the Jordanian government executed two prisoners in Jordanian custody affiliated with ISIS. ISIS said they would trade the pilot for one of the prisoners, even though the pilot had already been killed.
