USAF F-18 Hornet being fueled by strato tanker
KBS and BBC News reported that the U.S. Coalition has recently started to recover some territory in the Middle East that was under the occupation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). General Lloyd James Austin III told reporters that U.S. airstrikes have been gaining some effect and the allied forces have succeeded in winning back some Iraqi land.
In recent weeks, the U.S. military has been receiving a great deal of criticism for its very limited intervention in the war against the Islamic State, and that air strikes were very ineffective at stopping the militants from accumulating territory. General Austin, at a press conference held at the Pentagon told the press that the air strikes in fact have been doing their job by preventing groups of militants from moving to their destinations.
Kandal, a Kurdistan general told BBC in a phone call that most of the militants who were active at the Turkish-Syrian border have been neutralized. The US Central Command even added that the air force has struck the area surrounded Kobane 6 times yesterday morning and destroyed the Islamic State’s oil supplies.
In fact, earlier this week, Kurdistan group forces have succeeded in occupying a crucial strategic point. They had captured a town near the city of Kobane near the Turkish-Syrian border with the help of US-led air strikes. On Monday, the Kurdish town was hit by ISIS suicide bombers. After hearing that ISIS fighters were enclosing upon the area and have surrounded the town of Kobane, BBC reported that over 160,000 civilians have fled from the Turkish-Syrian border.
General Austin also pointed out that the coalition had succeeded in recapturing the Mosul Dam, another strategic point for the Islamic State. Despite these victories however, it is reported that the militants had occupied another Iraqi town called Heet. The situation near the border of Turkey is still very serious with battles and air strikes still taking place. Kurdistan forces announced that they cannot yet guarantee that safety of the civilians who live there.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that close to 1.8 million Iraqi civilians have been forced to flee for their lives because of the Islamic State. Around half of them were reported to have sought sanctuary in Kurdistan territories.
