{"id":46168,"date":"2018-12-11T22:49:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T22:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/11\/3rd-cavalry-regiment-soldiers-are-firing-intense-artillery-missions-into-syria-with-iraqi-french-allies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:05:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:05:58","slug":"3rd-cavalry-regiment-soldiers-are-firing-intense-artillery-missions-into-syria-with-iraqi-french-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/12\/11\/3rd-cavalry-regiment-soldiers-are-firing-intense-artillery-missions-into-syria-with-iraqi-french-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Cavalry Regiment soldiers are firing intense artillery missions into Syria with Iraqi, French allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By most official accounts, the bulk of the close fighting with ISIS militants in Iraq has been led by the Iraqis themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one place where U.S. troops get a piece of combat beyond training their partners is in providing fire support<\/a>. And nowhere is that more relevant than in artillery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soldiers with Bravo Battery, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, part of Task Force Rifles, have been lobbing 155mm rounds<\/a> across the Iraqi border at a steady pace for about three months now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re sharing the firing line with their Iraqi artillery counterparts and French Army soldiers, said Col. Jonathan Byrom, task force commander and deputy director of Joint Operations Command\u2013Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would not disclose how many rounds the units had fired in support of the months-long mission to take out Islamic State remnants holed up in the small Syria-Iraq border town of Hajin. But he said the fire missions were \u201cfairly intense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore intense than others I\u2019ve seen in the past,\u201d Byrom told reporters during a videoconference call from Iraq on Tuesday. \u201cAnd they\u2019re directly contributing to the protection of the Iraqi border.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hajin is seen as one of the last holdouts for ISIS fighters and some leadership, which is why some officials have pointed to the three-month long battle that is still ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
French soldiers fire a French Ceasar in support of Operation Roundup, in Al Quim, Iraq. As a non-permanent force the Coalition aims to enable the Iraqi security forces to be self-sufficient. (Spc. Zakia Gray\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These missions mirror in some ways the intense artillery fire support that Marines provided for coalition fights in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a five-month period, a single Marine artillery battalion fired more rounds than any such battalion since the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey fired more rounds in five months in Raqqa, Syria, than any other Marine artillery battalion, or any Marine or Army battalion, since the Vietnam war,\u201d Army Command Sgt. Major. John Wayne Troxell, then the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Military Times in a January media discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battalion fired 35,000 artillery rounds on ISIS targets, Troxell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a reference point, for the entirety of Operation Desert Storm, all Marine and Army units combined fired an estimated 60,000 artillery rounds. A little more than half of that was fired during the 2003 Iraq invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\t