US: Airstrikes kill over 1000 ISIS militants a month
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - 8 thousand ISIS members have so far been killed in Iraq and Syria in the airstrike campaign of the coalition forces since the beginning of the campaign in August 2014, according to the body count provided by an U.S General.
An U.S. Air Force General, John W. Hesterman, commander of the centre of operations for the air campaign against ISIS, said on Friday that airstrikes of the coalition forces are killing more than 1.000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria.
John Hesterman reported that 15.675 flights have been conducted since the beginning of the airstrike campaign, while 4 thousand 423 bombardments have been carried out, adding that some 25 percent of aircraft return from missions as having bombed the enemy.
Hesterman said the ISIS members blend into the civilians and thus the effect of the airstrikes remains limited.
“It’s helped ground forces regain territory”, he said, while removing more than 1,000 enemy fighters a month from the battlefield and eliminating the majority of ISIS’s oil refining capability.
Some former US Air Force officers and lawmakers have been criticising the White House for not using more force and restricting pilots’ ability to be effective.
The casualty numbers are the first that have been offered about the fight against ISIS since the air campaign began 10 months ago, and seem to confirm Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s estimate this week that the air strikes had killed at least 10,000 ISIS fighters.
(nt)
