Over 1700 Bombs Dropped in US-led War on Islamic State

Two US Navy F-18E Super Hornets supporting operations against the Islamic State on Oct. 4. (Photo by AFP)

The U.S.-led coalition has dropped a total of 1,700 in Iraq and Syria in the conflict against Islamic State, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, the allies have launched 6,600 sorties over the past 10 weeks, since the United States commenced ‘Operation Inherent Resolve’ against the militants in mid-August.

The Pentagon also confirmed that on Wednesday it and its “partner nations” launched 15 attacks, destroying Islamic State positions in Kobani, the town besieged by the Islamists for over three weeks.

On Thursday, London-based human rights group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that 553 people have been killed in coalition airstrikes on Syria, although the number may be higher due to the “extreme secrecy by ISIS on its casualties and the difficulties to reach to thus areas,” according to the group. The figure includes 32 civilians in attacks on oil fields in al-Hasakah, Aleppo, Idlib and Der-Ezzor countrysides.

Earlier this month, Pentagon officials set out that the United States carried out 90 percent of the air raids on the rebels, with a combination of the Arab nations, France, the United Kingdom and Australia accounting for the rest of the strikes.

So far, the U.S.-led coalition advance has been restricted to the skies. On Thursday, Central Command stated that a ground offensive by Iraqi forces was months away from fruition.

“It’s not imminent. But we don’t see that that’s a years-long effort to get them to a place to where they can be able to go on a sustained counter-offensive,” a military official said, instead describing it as a “months-long” endeavor.