Strikes Continue in Effort to Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Sept. 23, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 51 strikes consisting of 68 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 41 strikes consisting of 43 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.

-- Near Raqqa, 39 strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units, destroying 41 fighting positions, a command-and-control node and a supply route and suppressing two fighting positions.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes consisting of 25 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Qaim, three strikes destroyed an ISIS headquarters, an improvised-explosive-device facility and a weapons facility.

-- Near Huwijah, five strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed three vehicles, two command-and-control nodes, a rocket-propelled-grenade system, a medium machine gun, a staging area, an IED factory, a vehicle-borne-IED facility, a tactical vehicle and a weapons cache.

-- Near Samarra, a strike destroyed coalition equipment that malfunctioned due to an engine failure unrelated to combat.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged two ISIS snipers and destroyed two tunnel entrances.

Additional Sept. 21 Strikes

Officials also provided details today on 31 strikes in consisting of 48 engagements conducted Sept. 21 in Syria and Iraq for which the information was not available in time for yesterday's report:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS tactical vehicle.

-- Near Raqqa, 28 strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed 18 fighting positions, eight vehicles, a tactical vehicle, two IEDs, two supply routes and a logistics node, damaged seven fighting positions and suppressed two fighting positions.

-- Near Huwijah, two strikes destroyed six ISIS fighting positions, three tunnel entrances, two command-and-control nodes, a vehicle-borne-IED facility and a front-end loader.

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.