26 May 17. Coalition Removes ISIS Leaders From Battlefield. Coalition airstrikes have removed senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria military officials and planners from the battlefield. The elimination of three senior foreign fighters represents a significant degradation of the ISIS planning and operational capability, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials said.
Terrorists Were Based in Syria, Iraq
Mustafa Gunes, a Syria-based ISIS external operations facilitator from Turkey, was killed by an April 27 coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria. He was identified as an ISIS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya. He was linked to facilitating financial support for planning attacks outside Syria and Iraq against the West, officials said.
Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, an ISIS external operations planner and a Syria-based French-Algerian ISIS fighter, was killed by a May 11 coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria. He was involved in training a new generation of ISIS youths called the Cubs of the Caliphate, officials said, describing it as a high-priority training program sanctioned by ISIS leadership.
Abu-Khattab al-Rawi, a senior ISIS military official, was killed during a May 18 operation near Qaim, Iraq, along with three other terrorists. Rawi was an ISIS military official who operated in Iraq’s Anbar province and provided direct support to ISIS leadership, officials said. He also was responsible for coordinating unmanned aerial vehicle operations and procurement in Anbar.
The deaths of these men eliminates senior foreign fighters who had extensive experience and training and degrades ISIS’ ability to plan and conduct attacks on civilian targets in Iraq and Syria, as well throughout the region and in the West, task force officials said. (Source: US DoD)
26 May 17. Indonesia military identifies three graft suspects over helicopter deal. Indonesia’s military and anti-corruption agency have identified three suspects in a corruption investigation into the controversial purchase of an AgustaWestland helicopter, the military chief said on Friday. General Gatot Nurmantyo said the investigation, in which the police, state auditors and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) participated, found the deal did not follow proper procedures, causing a loss of 220bn rupiah ($17m).
Originally meant for the use of Indonesia’s president, the AW101 helicopter looked set to become a white elephant when Joko Widodo in 2015 rejected the $55m purchase in favour of continuing to use an older helicopter, media have said.
The three suspects are all military personnel on active duty, Nurmantyo said, referring to them only by their initials at a joint news conference at the headquarters of the anti-corruption agency.
“In the military, corruption is very detrimental to the soldiers because…those who do it are policymakers and they could endanger soldiers by buying sub-optimal equipment,” Nurmantyo said.
Investigators have also frozen the bank account of a domestic company linked to the procurement, holding a balance of 139bn rupiah ($10.5m).
Italian defence group Leonardo Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Controversy over the Air Force’s helicopter purchase deal grew late last year when Nurmantyo sought to cancel it.
In response, Air Force officials said they had government and parliamentary approval to continue with the purchase and alter the craft to equip it for search and rescue missions.
Nurmantyo then ordered an investigation into the deal.
The AW101 helicopter arrived in Jakarta in February but was sealed at the capital’s Halim military airbase, media have said.
In 2014, India cancelled a $770m deal to buy 12 AW101 helicopters after the arrest of the then chief executive of Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, for allegedly paying bribes to secure the deal. (Source: Reuters)
26 May 17. Taiwan determined to defend itself. Taiwan conducted its