‘Moron’ jihadist’s selfie leads US to HQ
General hails ‘incredible’ intelligence work after air force locates command center and levels it in a day
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A selfie uploaded by an Islamic State member this week gave the US Air Force the intel it needed to locate and bomb a command center in Syria in less than 24 hours.
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, described the jihadist behind the social media post as a “moron.”
“The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command,” Carlisle was quoted by reports as saying Monday during a speech in Arlington, Virginia. “And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da’esh, ISIL. And these guys go ‘ah, we got an in.'”
Through the “incredible work” of the intelligence team, the site in Syria was bombed shortly after, he said.
“So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours.”
Carlisle said that the US-backed coalition has launched 4,200 airstrikes and 14,000 weapons since it launched the air campaign. He assessed that some 13,000 jihadi fighters had been killed in the raids, and some 1,000 vehicles and some 50 arms factories were destroyed.
“Their best way to make money was oil collection and refining capacity, and we’ve taken out about 90 percent of that,” Carlisle said.
The Times of Israel Community.