SOUTHWEST ASIA–(ENEWSPF)–February 27, 2017 — U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
Coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes consisting of 21 engagements in Syria:
- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed five wellheads and an oil manifold.
- Near Palmyra, two strikes destroyed six pumpjacks.
- Near Raqqa, eight strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and an ISIS staging area and destroyed four fighting positions, two ammo caches, a mortar system, a vehicle, a chemical weapons facility and an ISIS headquarters.
Strikes in Iraq
Coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes consisting of 80 engagements in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
- Near Kirkuk, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units, destroyed four ISIS-held buildings and damaged a tunnel.
- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and two ISIS staging areas; destroyed eight fighting positions, six mortar systems, five vehicles, three vehicle bombs, two roadblocks, two ISIS-held buildings, two rocket-propelled grenade systems, two vehicle bomb facilities, two weapons caches, a tactical vehicle, a sniper position, a supply cache, a bulldozer and a tunnel entrance; damaged nine supply routes and a front-end loader; and suppressed 18 mortar teams and five ISIS tactical units.
- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed a weapons cache and a supply cache.
- Near Sinjar, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed eight tactical vehicles and two weapons storage facilities.
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.
Source: http://defense.gov
