For most people an ill-advised social media post leads to embarrassment, a break up or maybe even a lost job.
But for one ISIS militant, and his associates, a revealing social media post led to three Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) missile strikes less than 24 hours after the U.S. Air Force’s 361st ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) Group spotted it.
The post was, naturally, a selfie.
“The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, they’re combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command,” the head of Air Combat Command shared during an Air Force Association breakfast in Washington D.C.
“And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities for Daesh, ISIL [ISIS]. And these guys go: ‘We got an in.’ So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [Joint Direct Attack Munitions] take that entire building out.”
While careful not to share sensitive details about either the location of the building or the airstrike itself, the commander stated that ISIS’ love of social media, which we’ve profiled here, can also reveal valuable information that can have real world consequences.
The strikes show that the Pentagon is carefully watching the activities of ISIS and taking out select high value targets when possible.
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