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Coalition Air Strikes Decline Sharply in Syria and Iraq
[AnNahar] Coalition air strikes in Syria and Iraq fell sharply last month, a reflection of the collapse of the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group, a U.S. Air Force general said Tuesday. Brigadier General Andrew Croft, who coordinates the coalition air campaign, said there were 60 to 70 percent fewer air strikes in October than the average for the preceding eight to nine months. "That's indicative of the fact that ISIS is collapsing not only as a physical caliphate but also in ownership of land," he told news hounds in a teleconference. "They only control about four or five percent of the original area they covered, so the number of targets has dropped dramatically, particularly in the last month." He said 850 bombs were dropped during October compared to 1,800 to 2,400 a month since the start of the year. The decline came in the same month that Raqa, IS' Syrian stronghold, fell to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. Before that, Iraqi forces backed by coalition airpower retook the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... from IS in early July. According to coalition estimates, at least 786 civilians have been killed during the three-year air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Airwars.Com, a website that monitors casualty reports, puts the number of civilians killed in coalition Posted by: trailing wife 2017-11-09 |
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