NEW YORK: The United States is shifting more attack and surveillance aircraft from Afghanistan to the air war against the Islamic State militant group, deepening American involvement in the conflict, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The move, the newspaper said, was presenting new challenges for the American military planners who worked in central South Carolina, far from the targets they would pick for those aircraft.

A dozen A-10 ground-attack planes have recently moved from Afghanistan to Kuwait, where they are to start flying missions supporting Iraqi ground troops as early as this week, military officials said. About half a dozen missile-firing Reaper drones will also be redeployed from Afghanistan in the next several weeks.

The Times says more than 7,000 miles away at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar another group of analysts and targeting specialists focuses on so-called pop-up targets — convoys of militants or heavy weaponry on the move. These have been the top priority of the three-month campaign, even though only about one out of every four aircraft missions sent to attack them has dropped its bombs.

The rest of the missions have returned to the base, failing to find a target they were permitted to hit under strict rules of engagement designed to avoid civilian casualties,the newspaper states.

Of the 450 strikes in Syria through last week, about 25 per cent were planned, military officials said. Of the 540 strikes in Iraq through the same period, there were even fewer, only 5pc of the total.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2014