Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
MNA International Desk: Reportedly, US-led strikes pound Islamic State in Iraq as that kill 250 fighters. US-led alliance aircraft paid a series of deadly strikes against Islamic State around the city of Falluja on Wednesday, US officials reported media, with one citing a preliminary approximation of at least 250 suspected troops killed and at least 40 vehicles destroyed.
If the figures are confirmed, the strikes would be among the most deadly ever against the jihadist group. The officials spoke on condition of secrecy to describe the operation and noted preliminary estimates can change.
The attacks, which the officials said took place south of the city, are just the latest battleground setback suffered by Islamic State in its self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ of Iraq and Syria. The group’s territorial losses are not lesseninganxieties about its intent and ability to strike abroad though.
However, Turkey pointed the finger at Islamic State on Wednesday for a triple suicide bombing and gun attack that killed 41 people at Istanbul’s main airport.
The attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport is one of the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, which is struggling to contain the spillover from neighboring Syria’s civil war and battling an insurgency by Kurdish militants in its southeast.
CIA chief John Brennan told a forum in Washington the attack bore the hallmarks of Islamic State ‘depravity’ and acknowledged there was a long road ahead battling the group, particularly its ability to incite attacks.
“We’ve made, I think, some significant progress, along with our coalition partners, in Syria and Iraq, where most of the ISIS members are resident right now,” Brennan said.
“But ISIS’ ability to continue to propagate its narrative, as well as to incite and carry out these attacks I think we still has a ways to go before we’re able to say that we have made some significant progress against them.” He also added.
On the battleground, the US-led movement against Islamic State has moved up a gear in recent weeks, with the government announcing victory over Islamic State in Falluja.
A coalition of militias has also launched a major aggressive against the militant group in the city of Manbij in northern Syria. In a reminder of the back-and-forth nature of the war, US-backed Syrian rebels were pushed back from the outskirts of an Islamic State-held town on the border with Iraq and a nearby air base on Wednesday after the jihadists mounted a counter- attack, two rebel sources said.
