U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 37 strikes consisting of 79 engagements, 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 34 strikes consisting of 50 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed 15 ISIS oil storage tanks, eight ISIS oil barrels, six ISIS oil stills and a vehicle.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, six strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed three ISIS-held buildings, two command-and-control nodes, an ISIS staging area, a mortar system, a tactical vehicle and an ISIS oil refinery.
-- Near Raqqa, 25 strikes engaged 17 ISIS tactical units; destroyed 16 fighting positions, five vehicles, two ammo caches, a recoilless rifle, a supply cache and an unmanned aerial system launch site; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.
Strikes in Iraq
In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of 29 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed 11 fighting positons, a medium machine gun, a heavy machine gun and a mortar system; damaged two fighting positions; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit and a sniper team.
June 22-23 Strikes
Additionally, 13 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on June 22-23 that closed within the last 24 hours.
-- On June 22, near Raqqa, Syria, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed two fighting positions, two vehicles, a weapons cache and an ISIS staging area; and damaged 14 fighting positions.
-- On June 23, near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed 29 vehicle-borne bombs and damaged a front-end loader.
-- On June 23, near Raqqa, Syria, seven strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and suppressed two ISIS tactical units.
-- On June 23, near Mosul, Iraq, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed three fighting positions, two medium machine guns, a sniper position and a rocket-propelled grenade system; and suppressed four mortar teams and a sniper position.
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.