US Launched 1,867 Airstrikes on ISIS Targets in Iraq and Syria in December 2014

Brian Everstine

January 8, 2015

Airstrikes against Islamic State total 1,867 in December, highest in five-month campaign

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq dropped 5,886

bombs

from August through the end of 2014, more than in any recent year in Afghanistan.

These airstrikes have put Islamic State fighters on the “defensive,” though the Pentagon is now researching claims that civilians may have been killed in the bombings, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.

Coalition aircraft released 1,867 weapons in December battling the Islamic State, the most in any month since the campaign began in August and contributing to a year-end total of 5,886 weapons released, according to numbers provided by Air Forces Central Command. By comparison, the busiest year since 2009 in Afghanistan saw 5,411 bombs dropped in all of 2011.

U.S. Central Command on Wednesday released details on targets hit during the campaign. These total 3,222 and include 184 Humvees, 303 tactical vehicles, 673 fighting positions, 259 oil infrastructure targets and 58 tanks.

"We very much see ISIL [Islamic State] largely in a defensive posture inside Iraq, that whatever momentum that they had been enjoying has been halted, has been blunted," Kirby said. "That has stayed steady over the last couple of weeks."

That progress cannot be taken for granted though, Kirby said. Islamic State fighters still threaten the city of Baiji, along with remaining in control of Mosul and parts of the Anbar province.

"It’s very much a contested environment, but what we don’t see, what we haven’t seen in the last several weeks has been any renewed offensive moves by ISIL of any significance," Kirby said. "They have largely taken a defensive posture in the last several weeks."