Speaking to ARA News in Deir ez-Zor, media activist Mujahid Rifaee confirmed that ISIS militants hang the corpses of the soldiers in a public square in the neighborhood [Sinaa], vowing civilians not to stand beside the regime’s forces, otherwise they would be slaughtered.
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“The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on Daesh and defend the region in any future contingency”, said Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Brown, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command. The huge aircraft is an iconic symbol of American air power and its presence over Islamic State-held territory will be a boost for Iraqi and Kurdish forces preparing to take back one of the Islamic State’s biggest strongholds in Iraq. It also signaled a more aggressive approach to the war under the leadership of Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland. Since the US -led air war began in 2014, the military acknowledges 26 such casualties.
The assault late Sunday, the latest raid by US special operators on a mission to kill or capture IS leaders, occurred at an undisclosed location in northern Iraq and targeted Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, Baghdad-based USA military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. Delegating authorities for targeting makes us faster and more agile, but it does not change this fundamental fact.
The Pentagon has admitted to a small number of civilian casualties in the almost two-year-old air war against the Islamic State, often conducting long investigations to verify casualty claims. “By any standard, this is the most precise air campaign in the history of warfare”.
Warren declined to comment on whether Jabouri was killed, but in a statement to AFP on Wednesday the Kurdish regional security council said he died.
The US military has since August 2014 been targeting purported ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria.
It “has developed into a shoving match”, Warren said.
In areas of the most intense fighting, airstrikes can be approved when 10 civilians are likely to be wounded or killed if the target is deemed important enough to kill or destroy, a senior official said.
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Also Wednesday, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Baghdad to assess progress in the war.
