The US-led military effort against the Islamic State group started exactly two years ago, aimed at halting the jihadists as they swept across Iraq, leaving a trail of human butchery and destruction in their wake.
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He reportedly said during a recent media briefing in Pentagon that both the quality and quantity of IS fighters have declined following their aggressive offensive. The number of IS fighters in Libya, especially around Sirte, has also fallen from thousands just hundreds in the past few months.
“If we’re able to do simultaneous operations in and synchronize the Mosul piece and the Raqqa piece, think about the problem that generates for (the Islamic State)”, Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian said.
Most are in Iraq, though some special operations forces are working with Kurdish and Arab fighters in war-torn Syria, where a civil war and Russian strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad have further complicated the picture. The report says some Westerners are “motivated by a search for personal fulfillment, adventure and excitement, or even a base urge to fight”.
MacFarland said Syrian opposition forces are on the brink of defeating DAESH in Manbij, Syria.
On Tuesday, another U.S. military official said American soldiers helping Afghan troops fight Islamic State in Nangarhar were forced to abandon equipment and weapons when their position came under fire.
Islamic State group has been forcing women in their territory to wear a burqa that covers their entire body, except for eyes, in accordance with their Sharia law. “I don’t they would have made that mistake a year ago”, MacFarland said.
A 28-year-old former U.S. Army soldier, identified only as Brett, told ABC News’ “Nightline” last year that he joined an anti-ISIS Christian group to help defend the defenseless.
Twelve countries have participated with the US on strikes in both Iraq and Syria including Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Jordan and the United Kingdom. That totals about half of what it once controlled in Iraq, and 20 percent of its former Syrian territories, according to MacFarland.
The U.S. and Iraqi forces have established a base of operations south of Mosul, a northern city of about one million people.
He said the ISF had “proved they can conduct complex and decisive operations” and that a turning point in the fight against Islamic State had come with the liberation of Ramadi. Iraqi forces have captured a number of towns south of Mosul and began to seal it off. “Once it is recaptured, the enemy in Iraq will be reduced to scattered pockets of resistance and that is now our focus”.
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RAF pilots flying strike missions against ISIS across Iraq and Syria have killed scores of ISIS gunmen and destroyed many terrorist facilities.
