US, allies stage 29 air strikes against Islamic State – statement

An global coalition led by the United States targeted Islamic State militants in Iraq with 22 air strikes on Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The military campaign has prevented Iraq’s collapse and put the Islamic State under increasing pressure in northern Syria, particularly squeezing its self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa. It says the same strikes also caused at least 48 suspected “friendly fire” deaths.

The report said efforts to limit the risk to civilians are hampered by an absence of effective transparency and accountability from almost all coalition members. The coalition had no immediate comment on the report released Monday.

They destroyed staging areas, fighting positions, tactical units and other Islamic State targets. Canada began its own strikes in April, while Britain carries out routine reconnaissance-only drone missions above Syria, and British pilots have carried out airstrikes while embedded with U.S. forces.

Syrian Kurdish fighters and their allies have wrested most of the northern Syria border from the Islamic State group, and the plan announced this week for a U.S.-Turkish “safe zone” is expected to cement those gains.

The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the Obama administration bomb campaign launched last year against the Islamic State has yielded no perceivable degradation of the terrorist organization’s forces. The coalition retook about 9 percent of Islamic State territory this year, according to the monitoring group IHS, and is continuing to push towards the hub of Raqqa, Syria. One other probe into an airstrike in Syria and two investigations into airstrikes in Iraq are still pending. Meanwhile, the group has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Afghanistan.

The Islamic State’s staying power also raises questions about the administration’s approach to the threat that the group poses to the U.S. and its allies.

Massoud Barzani also said Sinjar will remain a Kurdish province under the Iraqi federal government.

His speech marked the anniversary of the fall of Sinjar to the Islamic State group, which forced tens of thousands of people from Iraq’s Yazidi minority to flee into the mountains, prompting the U.S.to begin the airstrikes targeting the militant group.

The stalemate makes the battle for Ramadi all the more important.