News / Military

US attacked 24 ISIL positions in Iraq, Syria: Pentagon

Friday, 01 January 2016 9:52 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 January 2016 9:53 AM ]

An F-15E Strike Eagle prepares to depart RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom to support Operation Inherent Resolve, on November 12, 2015. (AFP photo)

The United States and its allies have conducted 24 airstrikes against Daesh (ISIL) positions in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon claims.

US-led coalition forces carried out the latest attacks on Wednesday, as part of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, the Pentagon said in a Thursday statement.

In Syria, warplanes and unmanned drones destroyed ISIL positions along with a building near Ayn Issa in the northern city of Raqqah.

Four airstrikes near Mar’a “wounded” four Takfiri militants and destroyed a vehicle and several tactical units. Another tactical unit was struck in an attack near Manbij in Aleppo.

In Iraq, coalition’s fighter jets and bomber aircraft carried out 17 strikes, five of which were near the newly-liberated town of Ramadi after it fell to Daesh in May 2015.

Nine more attacks hit targets near Mosul, another major city that Iraqi military and popular forces are gearing up to recapture.

Three more airstrikes targeted ISIL positions near the cities of Sanjar and Kisik. It was not immediately clear if the attacks had inflicted any casualties upon the terror group.

Since August 2014, Washington and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they call Daesh positions in Iraq. Some members of the US-led coalition have also been pounding purported ISIL positions inside Syria since September 2014, without any authorization from Damascus or the UN.

This is while Russia has been running its own aerial campaign in the Arab country since last September, upon a request from Damascus.

The US-led airstrikes hit a major roadblock in December, when Russia deployed its sophisticated air defense systems to Syria following the downing of one of its bombers by Turkey.

Pentagon officials have acknowledged that Moscow’s move forced them to ground many of their manned flights in Syria.

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