Manned, Unmanned Mix Strikes Enemy

Air Force and coalition aircraft flew 59 close air support missions on July 1 in Afghanistan and 23 in Iraq, Air Forces Central announced yesterday. In Afghanistan, a B-1B bomber took out enemy rocket positions near Gereshk with 500-pound and 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions, while an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle struck insurgents in the vicinity of Kandahar with a Hellfire missile. Near Bari Kowt, an A-10 and F-15E destroyed enemy forces with a 2,000-pound JDAM and 500-pound bomb. And in the area around Sar Hawzeh, A-10s dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs and a 500-pound bomb to take out a high-value enemy command-and-control target as well as rocket positions, AFCENT said.