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Officials Release Details of Latest Counter-ISIS Strikes in Syria, Iraq

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U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, conducting 28 strikes consisting of 111 engagements against ISIS targets yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

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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 25 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two pieces of engineering equipment and a vehicle.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, eight strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed two wellheads; and damaged four supply routes and a crane.

-- Near Raqqa, nine strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed four fighting positions, two ISIS-held buildings, two watercraft, two weapons factories, a tunnel, a vehicle and a vehicle-borne bomb; and damaged a supply route.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 86 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Asad, a strike destroyed two tactical vehicles.

-- Near Beiji, a strike suppressed an ISIS heavy machine gun team.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike destroyed a vehicle and a mortar system.

-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle, an ISIS-held building and a mortar system.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units, an ISIS heavy machine gun team and an ISIS sniper team; destroyed six fighting positions, two heavy machine guns, two rocket-propelled grenade systems, two vehicle-borne bombs, two vehicle-borne bomb factories, two mortar systems, a command-and-control node, a tactical vehicle, a roadblock, a supply cache and an ISIS-held building; damaged eight supply routes and an ISIS-held building; and suppressed 17 ISIS mortar teams and ten ISIS tactical units.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb and weapons cache.

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.

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