CENTCOM, which oversees US troops in the Middle East, said they and Iraqi forces from December 30 to Monday “conducted multiple strikes in the Hamrin mountains of Iraq, targeting known ISIS locations,” adding that “the operations served to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians in the region, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond.”
It also said that “ISIS fighters engaged Coalition forces on several occasions, resulting in the employment of Coalition air strikes, using F-16s, F-15s, and A-10s. The A-10s tasked to support ground forces in the area were successful in eliminating the ISIS fighters within a cave.”
The clashes resulted in casualties among coalition forces.
“One Coalition member was killed and two were wounded from two different nations,” CENTCOM said, adding that no US personnel was injured.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.”
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019, respectively, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
The US forces also provided support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last week in anti-ISIS operations in eastern Syria, resulting in the arrest of an ISIS leader, according to CENTCOM.
CENTCOM Commander General Michael "Erik" Kurilla was cited in the statement as saying joint operations with local allies “are critical to maintaining pressure on ISIS and preventing the terrorist group from taking advantage of the rapidly changing security environment in the region.”
