From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release.
SOUTHWEST ASIA – U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterday’s strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 19 strikes consisting of 27 engagements against ISIS targets:
- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed two wellheads, two tanker trucks and a pump jack.
- Near Raqqa, 18 strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units; destroyed 10 fighting positions, six barges, three ISIS headquarters, a tactical vehicle, an improvised-explosive-device factory and a weapons factory; and damaged a supply route.
Strikes in Iraq
In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted six strikes consisting of 65 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of the government of Iraq.
The strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and four ISIS sniper teams; destroyed 17 fighting positions, six heavy machine guns, four vehicles, three rocket-propelled grenade systems, a mortar system, a vehicle-bomb factory, an artillery system and a roadblock; damaged nine supply routes; and suppressed six ISIS mortar teams, five ISIS tactical units and an ISIS anti-air artillery team.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group’s ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
Wild Bill is right. Bring our troops home and we will be fighting the enemy on our borders. You cannot expect them to leave us alone by supporting an isolationist attitude. If we had done that in the past we would be speaking German or Japanese today.
@church Mallory, We project military power beyond our borders, so that the destruction of war never comes to the interior of our country. This decision was made by the Eisenhower administration after seeing the destruction of Europe , and that decision has been ratified by every administration since that time. Even the feckless Barry Soetoro used has military authority against Assad. So what has changed?
More unconstitutional entanglements and wars without Congress declaring war. Bring our troops home and use them to guard our borders. Nothing in the Middle East is any business or responsibility of the American tax payer.