ISIS Attacks 2015: Coalition Forces Strike ISIS Targets in Iraq, Syria as Militants Execute More Than 100
U.S. and coalition forces on Sunday and Monday launched 20 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon announced in a statement.
Fighter and bomber aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Syria, and fighter aircraft conducted six airstrikes in Iraq, according to officials from the Combined Joint Task Force. The attacks took place between 8 a.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. Monday.
Meanwhile, reports emerged on Monday the terrorist group had executed more than 100 of its members whose loyalty it deemed "questionable," the International Business Times reported.
Iraq's powerful interior minister, Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, interpreted the killings as a sign that ISIS was losing its control over people.
"The execution of 100 ISIS militants demonstrates that the group is breaking down," al-Ghabban said in a statement.
Over Syria, coalition jets targeted two large ISIS units and a fighting position near Kobani, a city in the country's northern Aleppo governorate, immediately south of the Turkish border. The Combined Joint Task Force said it destroyed 11 militant fighting positions.
In the eastern part of the country, meanwhile, projectiles struck five crude oil collection points and a crude oil pipeline controlled by the Islamist organization. The coalition said it also destroyed two ISIS armored vehicles and a shipping container.
Over Iraq, meanwhile, strikes were carried out in four locations: near Qaim, a northern town near the Syrian border; near Asad, in the western Al Anbar province; near Ramadi, a central Iraqi city less than 100 miles from Baghdad; and near Mosul, a city of more than a million and the largest locality controlled by ISIS fighters.
The U.S. Department of Defense said aircraft struck two large ISIS units and two tactical units, and bombs destroyed two excavators and three vehicles used by the Islamist militants.
The attacks were conducted as part of an operation "to eliminate the (ISIS) terrorist group and the threat (it poses) to Iraq, the region and the wider international community," the Pentagon said.
Beyond the United States, the coalition comprises Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
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