USAF A-10s appear in videos showing Kurdish fighters breaking ISIS siege of Mount Sinjar in Iraq

While we wait for some official footage of the A-10s at work in Iraq, here’s a clip where you can hear and see the Air Force “Hogs” in action.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces reportedly broke Islamic State siege of Iraq’s Mount Sinjar, freeing thousands of members of the Yazidi minority who were trapped there since August.

At min. 1:38 of the following footage released by Kurdish authorities you’ll see an A-10 flying high over the Peshmerga fighters east of Mount Sinjar moving in trucks and armoured personnel carriers.

Then, at min. 1:20 of the video below you will hear the unmistakable sound of the GAU-8 Avenger a 30 mm hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-type cannon of the A-10 aircraft belonging to the 163rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron “Blacksnakes”, part of the 122nd Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard, based at Fort Wayne, Indiana, currently deployed to Ahmed al Jaber airbase, in Kuwait.

Little official information about the A-10 involvement in war on ISIS has been released so far. We know the Warthogs are being used in Iraq and not in Syria, a sign that the Pentagon probably considers Syrian air defense systems a lethal threat to the aircraft or that A-10s are not dispatched where they can’t get TACP (Tactical Air Control Party) support to conduct Close Air Support.

H/T to Save the A-10 page for the heads-up

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.