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U.S., Coalition Continue Strikes Against ISIS

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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 nine strikes consisting of 31 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Raqqa, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed eight barges and five fighting positions; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Palmyra, two strikes destroyed three ISIS command-and-control nodes, three supply caches, a checkpoint and a bunker; and damaged three bunkers.

-- Near Tabqah, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 45 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and an ISIS staging area; destroyed three rocket-propelled-grenade systems, three fighting positions, a heavy machine gun, an artillery system, a weapons factory and a vehicle-borne-bomb factory; damaged seven supply routes and five fighting positions; and suppressed 12 ISIS mortar teams, four ISIS tactical units and an ISIS sniper 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.

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