Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Iraq

U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Iraq

Ground-attack, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 20 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units, suppressed an ISIL mortar position, and destroyed 21 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL supply cache, and two ISIL assembly areas.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Ramadi, five strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL machine gun, an ISIL bed down location, an ISIL command-and-control node, and two ISIL vehicle bomb-making facilities.

-- Near Sinjar, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed five ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL checkpoint.

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 a 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.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct operations.