US-led coalition launches 31 air strikes against Isis forces in Syria and Iraq

[umbertino]

Fighters, bombers and remotely controlled aircraft hit 16 targets in Syria while 15 strikes were carried out in Iraq

 

• Reuters
•  
• theguardian.com, Friday 26 December 2014 15.46 GMT

 

 

US forces and their allies staged 31 air strikes on Islamic State (Isis) forces in Iraq and Syria on Friday, the Combined Joint Task Force said.

 

Fighters, bombers and remotely controlled aircraft hit 16 targets in Syria while 15 strikes were carried out in Iraq, a statement said.

 

The 16 strikes in Syria were concentrated on an area near the city of Kobani and destroyed buildings, a staging area and several fighting positions. Two large Isis units and four tactical units also were hit.

 

Two air strikes near Al Hasakah and one near Ar Raqqah also caused damage.

 

In Iraq, 15 air strikes hit near Al Asad, Sinjar, Mosul, Al Qaim, Baiji, Kirkuk and Tal Afar, destroying or damaging a rocket system, vehicles, tactical units and fighting positions, the statement said.

 

Air strikes against Isis militants began in Iraq on 8 August and in Syria on 23 September.

 

On Thursday, the father of a Jordanian pilot who was taken prisoner by Isis fighters after his jet came down near the Syrian city of Raqqa pleaded for his son to be well-treated.

 

The loss of the Jordanian plane was the first suffered by the US-led coalition.

 

The group has executed captured Iraqi and Syrian Muslim soldiers but the pilot’s father, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, said: “I direct a message to our generous brothers of the Islamic State in Syria: to host my son, the pilot Muadh, with generous hospitality. I ask God that their hearts are gathered together with love, and that he is returned to his family, wife and mother.”

 

He added: “We are all Muslims.”

 

 

 

Smoke rises after a US-led coalition air strike on the Islamic State targets in Kobane (Ayn al-arab) border city of Syria on 25 December. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/26/us-led-coalition-air-strikes-isis-syria-iraq

 

[strolld2]

Degrade and Destroy!

[okane]

Merry Christmas ISIS.  What did Santa bring ya!  Oh, sorry, guess that wasn't reindeer landing on your rooftops

[new york kevin]

Kobanni yeah, obliterate Raqqah. Unless they are trying to eat up ISIS outlying areas where they have tenitative control, inorder to force them, concentrate them into large areas like Rhaqqa and after the less concentrated areas get re-claimed by rightious forces, hit them where they remain and blow them out of exhistance.