SitRep: CENTCOM Cooked Books on ISIS; U.S. Commandos in Libya

They’re in. American and British special operations forces have been spotted in the Islamic State’s Libyan stronghold of Sirte, helping local militia forces call in airstrikes on Islamic State fighters in the city, the Washington Post reports.

There’s no indication yet that they’re involved in ground combat, but the deployment puts U.S. troops closer to the frontlines of that war — and in more danger of being killed or wounded — then they had been previously. FP’s Paul McLeary writes that the growing role of elite U.S. forces in Libya comes as American military personnel are already in the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both missions — in wars America has largely forgotten about — are leading to new U.S. casualties. In Iraq, two commandos and one Marine have been killed since October. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, five U.S troops were wounded fighting ISIS in July, and an Army Green Beret was killed fighting the Taliban in January.

And in Syria. British commandos have also recently been seen operating in Syria. The BBC obtained pictures of the soldiers at a base for the moderate rebel New Syrian Army on the Syria-Iraq border.

Top down. Top officers at the U.S. Central Command ordered their analysts to alter intel assessments to make it look like the fight against ISIS was going better than it actually was, according to the findings of a House Republican task force. The Daily Beast reports that a 10-page report on the scandal should be released by the end of next week. “While it contains no definitive evidence that senior Obama administration officials ordered the reports to be doctored, the five-month investigation did corroborate earlier reports that analysts felt the leaders of CENTCOM’s intelligence directorate pressured them to conclude that the threat from ISIS was not as ominous as the analysts believed.”

Turkish officer disappears in Virginia. Washington and Ankara are about to be tested. “A Turkish military officer on a U.S.-based assignment for NATO is seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the Turkish government in the wake of last month’s failed military coup,” U.S. officials told Reuters. The Turkish officer was working at the headquarters of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, located in Norfolk, Virginia and has been identified as Turkish Navy Rear Admiral Mustafa Ugurlu, who the country’s embassy in Washington said has failed to report after Turkey issued a detention order for him last month. About 150 Turkish generals and admirals have been arrested since the failed military putsch on July 15. FP has some handy charts here showing how deeply the arrests have gutted the upper ranks of the Turkish military.

Navy officer punished for Iran flap. Lt. David Nartker — the officer in charge of the two U.S. riverine boats and nine sailors who were captured and held by Iranian forces in January — faces an administrative punishment for his role in the incident, USNI News has learned. Two other officers have already received letters of reprimand, and four sailors were handed similar punishments in July. For more on the incident, check out this recent story from FP’s Dan De Luce, where he outlined some of what was happening in the case.

Afghan on and on. The longest war in American history grinds on, with about 9,800 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan. While that fight grinds on, Afghan officials say U.S. warplanes have conducted about 25 airstrikes in southern Helmand province over the past two weeks in an effort to keep the Taliban out of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The insurgents have shut down a major highway between the city and Kandahar, using checkpoints and roadside bombs, and the latest reports out Wednesday say that Kabul is rushing more troops south, as the provincial capital has been surrounded by the insurgents. Of Helmand’s 14 districts, five are under Taliban control, and another seven are contested, according to The Long War Journal with the status of another district unknown.Lashkar Gah is, at the moment, still in government hands.

Tehran in the machine. The Iranian government is going hard after dissidents, foreign activists and journalists, FP’s Elias Groll reports, and is “increasingly turning the tools of computer espionage” to do so. “Western researchers have found evidence that Iranian hackers have targeted the regime’s perceived opponents by hacking into their computers to install spy software, mapped out the millions of Iranian users of the encrypted messaging service Telegram, and targeted journalists for espionage.”

Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

South China Sea

Vietnam is deploying rocket launchers to the disputed Spratly Islands, playing the rockets in range of military bases that China has built in the archipelago, according to a scoop from Reuters. The launchers are Israeli-made EXTRA rocket artillery systems camouflaged to hide from overhead surveillance. Vietnam’s deployments of the launchers to islands it controls in the Spratlys places Chinese military bases, like the runway on Fiery Cross Reef, and maritime traffic in range of the artillery systems.

Korean Peninsula

The disagreement over missile defense in East Asia is throwing a wrench into international efforts to isolate North Korea for its recent ballistic missile tests. Reuters reports that China has been blocking a draft censure of North Korea at the U.N. Security Council because of its gripes over the deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Air Defense systems to South Korea. China has been pushing for the draft to include passive aggressive language scolding countries who use North Korea’s missile tests as an “excuse” to deploy missile defense systems.

Erdogan and Putin

The two met in Moscow on Tuesday, and while no agreements were inked, it as an important step in reducing tensions after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane over Turkish airspace several months ago. The leaders are on opposite sides of the Syria mess, with Putin’s warplanes and troops bolstering Assad, and Erdogan a longtime foe of the Syrian leader. But chatting with Erdogan aside, Putin has recently called on Russia’s Parliament to approve an extended deployment of the Russian Air Force at Khmeimim Air Base outside Latakia, Syria, where its planes have flown sorties for almost a year to back up Assad. Parliamentary approval is little more than a rubber stamp.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is ready to buy $1.2 billion worth of armor from the United States, and the sale is offering a window into the losses the Kingdom has sustained during the war in Yemen. According to Defense One, 20 of the 153 Abrams tanks Saudi Arabia is purchasing are “battle damage replacements.” Given that Yemen is currently the only place where Saudi forces are engaged in land combat, it’s a fair bet that the Saudi-led effort against the Houthi movement there is the reason for losses.

Iran

The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on Iranian military capabilities is out and this year’s edition gives the Islamic Republic’s offensive cyber efforts a thumbs up. The report’s single sentence on cyber capabilities mentions that Iran has taken its hacking efforts against foreign powers up a notch, according to Bloomberg. The Pentagon also makes note of Iran’s growing missile arsenal, writing that they’re capable of “reaching targets throughout the region, including U.S. military bases and Israel.”

Army

DoD Buzz reports that the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley stunned audiences by suddenly cutting the livestream when his turn to speak at a TRADOC on Tuesday and declaring his remarks off-the-record. The Pentagon had previously told reporters that the remarks would be fair game and Milley’s own Twitter account urged followers to “watch live.” An Army spokeswoman had no explanation for why the talk, at a conference jointly put together by TRADOC and Georgetown University, went dark at the last minute.

Technology

The U.S. military recently wrapped up its Red Flag exercise, which aimed to integrate land, air, sea and cyber warfare skills more than ever before, according to the Washington Post. The exercise, which has been held since Vietnam, trained Air Force fighter pilots to work alongside troops carrying out cyber attacks in order to knock out adversarial air defense systems and maximize the use of airpower. The 527th Space Aggressor Squadron also participated in the Red Flag exercise, bringing with it the ability to simulate enemies that can jam U.S. GPS navigation and satellites.

Photo Credit: HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images