Military, National

Officials Provide Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS, June 9, 2017


SOUTHWEST ASIA–(ENEWSPF)–June 9, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 19 strikes consisting of 48 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 11 strikes consisting of 19 engagements against ISIS targets:

  • Near Tanf, two strikes destroyed two tactical vehicles and an unmanned aerial system.
  • Near Raqqa, nine strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed six fighting positions, three vehicles and a mortar system.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes consisting of 29 engagements against ISIS targets:

  • Near Qaim, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.
  • Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three vehicle-borne bombs, two tactical vehicles, two vehicles and two ISIS staging areas.
  • Near Kirkuk, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle, a heavy machine gun and an ISIS staging area.
  • Near Mosul, four strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed 11 fighting positions, two weapons caches, a mortar team, a medium machine gun and a vehicle; damaged seven fighting positions; and suppressed a mortar team.
  • Near Rawah, a strike destroyed a storage facility for improvised explosive devices.

June 5-7 Strikes

In addition to providing details on yesterday’s strikes, officials reported details today on eight strikes conducted in Syria and Iraq earlier this week for which full information was not available at the time of previous summaries:

  • Four June 5 strikes near Raqqa, Syria, destroyed an IED factory, an ISIS headquarters, an ISIS financial center and an ISIS staging area.
  • Two June 6 strikes near Raqqa engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS headquarters, a fighting position and a tunnel entrance.
  • A June 7 strike near Raqqa destroyed six fighting positions and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.
  • A June 7 strike near Mosul, Iraq, engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroyed a fighting position and a medium machine gun, and damaged nine ISIS supply routes.

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.

Source: http://defense.gov


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