Officials Provide Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Oct. 19, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 12 strikes consisting of 15 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve logo. DoD graphic

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 five strikes consisting of five engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed a weapons cache and two tactical vehicles.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and suppressed an indirect fire position and a defensive fighting position.

Strikes in Iraq

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

-- Near Qaim, four strikes destroyed an ISIS headquarters, an ISIS-held building, two weapons caches, a VBIED storage facility and a tactical vehicle.

-- Near Rawah, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two command-and-control centers, an ISIS safe house, an IED facility and an ISIS encampment.

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.

This coalition strike release contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery.

A strike, as defined in the coalition release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location.  For example, 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.

CJTF-OIR 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. The information used to compile the daily strike releases is based on 'Z' or Greenwich Mean Time.