Air Force commander: Coalition airstrikes against ISIL taking heavy toll

The Combined Forces Air Component commander for Operation Inherent Resolve recently released information on the work that U.S.-led coalition forces have been doing to combat ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

The success of multiple nations working together is due to “years of combined training and multilateral exercises (that have) been key to our continued success in the air campaign,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Brown Jr. said during a briefing to Pentagon reporters from an air operations base in Al Udied, Qatar. Brown, who is also commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command in Southwest Asia, talked about his faith in the history-making airstrikes conducted on ISIL with the use of Air Force and Navy aircraft equipped with precision-guided weaponry, and the success their continuation will bring in deterring and defeating them.

This includes attacks on ISIL's logistics and manufacturing sites, as well as financial and distribution centers, to hinder their finances, something Brown indicates has been successful so far, with 119 airstrikes having been performed so far. The United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia also have performed multiple airstrikes with multiple precision-guided weapons that destroyed weapons-storage sites, forcing ISIL to cut back on payments to fighters, while also disabling their re-supply capabilities.

Brown also said airstrikes helped Iraqi security forces take back Ramadi from ISIL, while also providing partnering work in the process of reclaiming Sinjar, Iraq, and Hasakah and the Tishrin Dam of the Euphrates River in Syria. Brown attributes these successes, alongside the continuing departure of ISIL fighters and leaders, to “our operational reach and flexibility, our precision and lethality, and our constant presence and responsiveness.”

Relations with Russia also have improved, concerning forces in Syria. While already in communication with one another concerning airstrikes, Russia has agreed to stay away from specific U.S. special operations and deployment locations, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said.