Konflikten i Syrien

SOUTHWEST ASIA, December 27, 2015 — U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, 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

Attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted five strikes in Syria:

-- Near Manbij, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units, destroying an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL weapons cache and wounding ISIL fighters.

-- Near Raqqah, two strikes destroyed three ISIL excavators and two ISIL bulldozers and damaged an ISIL excavator.

Strikes in Iraq

Fighter, attack, bomber, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 28 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Albu Hayat, one strike destroyed two ISIL heavy machine guns and an ISIL explosives cache.

-- Near Mosul, seven strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units, destroying 15 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL vehicles, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL bunker, four ISIL assembly areas and three ISIL command control nodes, as well as cratering two ISIL roads and denying ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Ramadi, four strikes destroyed two ISIL tactical vehicles, an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb, a factory and a staging location for ISIL vehicle-borne bombs, an ISIL building, two houses ISIL had rigged with explosives, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL fighting position. The strikes also denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Sinjar, six strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units, destroying two fighting positions, two bridges and two culverts ISIL had used.

-- Near Tal Afar, seven strikes struck four bridges and a culvert ISIL had used and destroyed 12 ISIL bunkers.

-- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun position, bridge ISIL had used, an ISIL bunker and an ISIL beddown location.

-- Near Kisik, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL tunnel.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do 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.

A permanent new US “expeditionary force” will target Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, operating independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time, defense secretary Ash Carter has revealed, in a significant escalation of the frontline use of American ground troops in the region.

Addressing Congressional leaders who are demanding swifter progress against Isis, Carter said on Tuesday that the troops would be based in Iraq but will have the capability to carry out raids across the border.

“It puts everybody on notice in Syria,” he said. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window.”