Officials Provide Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 25, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 13 strikes consisting of 35 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 10 strikes consisting of 12 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed an explosives cache and an ISIS-held building.

-- Near Shadaddi, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed two ISIS well-heads and a vehicle-borne-bomb factory.

-- Near Raqqa, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed five fighting positions.

Strikes in Iraq, Earlier Strikes

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted three strikes yesterday consisting of 23 engagements against ISIS targets near Tal Afar, Iraq, engaging an ISIS tactical unit and destroying 12 fighting positions, six machine guns, three mortar systems and three rocket-propelled grenades.

Officials also announced details today from 59 strikes consisting of 115 engagements conducted Aug. 21-23 in Syria and Iraq for which the information was not yet available in time for yesterday's report: 

-- On Aug. 21 near Raqqa, Syria, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

-- On Aug. 22 near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions and an ISIS headquarters.

-- On Aug. 23 near Raqqa, 44 strikes engaged 27 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 77 fighting positions, six ISIS headquarters, three command-and-control nodes, an explosives cache, a heavy machine gun and a vehicle.

-- On Aug. 23 near Tal Afar, six strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed 62 vehicles, two artillery systems, two command-and-control nodes, a fuel truck, two fighting positions, seven mortar systems, a vehicle, a sniper position, a staging area and an ISIS headquarters; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

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.