Officials Provide Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Sept. 6, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 32 strikes consisting of 41 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

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 27 strikes consisting of 36 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle and a staging area.

-- Near Raqqa, 25 strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed 22 fighting positions, three ISIS communications infrastructure items, and a logistics node; damaged three fighting positions; and suppressed four fighting positions.

Officials also provided details today on 13 earlier strikes consisting of 20 engagements conducted near Raqqa for which the information was not available in time for yesterday's report:

-- On Sept. 2, 11 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed five fighting positions.

-- On Sept. 3, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two fighting positions.

-- On Sept. 4, a strike destroyed five fighting positions.

Strikes in Iraq

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

-- Near Huwayjah, three strikes destroyed four ISIS-held buildings and two ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIS staging area.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building.

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.