Airstrikes have killed 10,000 fighters, U. S. official says
More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed by American- led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in nine months, a U. S. official said Wednesday, offering a first body count for a campaign that has yet to blunt the jihadists’ advance.
Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s figure came after a Paris conference on how to stop the extremists. It also came months after the Pentagon dismissed such counts as “simply not a relevant figure” in the fight against ISIL.
Speaking Wednesday to France Inter Radio a day after the Paris conference, Blinken said the airstrikes have been effective.
“We have seen enormous losses for Daesh,” Blinken said, using an Arabic acronym for the group. “More than 10,000 since the beginning of this campaign. That will end up having an effect.”
In September, the CIA said ISIL has up to 31,500 fighters, meaning that could represent a loss of a third of its forces. Despite that, the extremists continue to attract more recruits from around the world who come to fight with the group to expand its self- declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
On Wednesday, ISIL launched a major attack on the predominantly Kurdish city of Hassakeh in northeastern Syria in an apparent attempt to reverse some of the advances made by Kurdish fighters in the northeastern Syrian province.
The Kurds have captured dozens of towns and villages there with the help of U. S.- led airstrikes and are getting close to Tel Abyad, a major ISIL- held border town near Turkey.
Syrian state television said extremists are battling for control of a juvenile prison still under construction on Hassakeh’s southern edge and have attacked it with five suicide car bombs.
The TV report said government warplanes have struck the ISIL stronghold of Shaddadeh, south of Hassakeh. An ISIL- affiliated Facebook page said the airstrikes on Shaddadeh destroyed seven homes without causing any casualties.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said another suicide car bomb targeted the city’s power station, causing damage and a power outage.
Activists also reported intense fighting Wednesday in the northern Aleppo province between ISIL and other insurgent groups, including al- Qaida’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front. ISIL has been on the offensive in the area and has captured several towns and villages.
Meanwhile, nine prominent jihadist ideologues issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in which they called on Muslim militants to battle ISIL fighters because they have attacked insurgents.
“As the nation of Islam was waiting for more conquests by the holy warriors, the Baghdadis were stabbing the holy warriors in the back,” read the Fatwa that was posted on several jihadist accounts on social media, referring to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi. “They stopped the holy warriors’ march against the regime.”
The fatwa that was signed by religious figures, including Jordan’s top pro- al- Qaida ideologues Abu Qatada and Abu Mohammed al- Maqdisi, as well as Abdullah alMheisny of Saudi Arabia who is now in Syria with the Nusra Front.
In the Qatari capital of Doha, U. S. envoy John Allen said Iraq’s socalled Popular Mobilization Forces — which include Iranian- backed Shiite militias — have a role to play in helping take back territory from ISIL in the Sunni- dominated Anbar province, but that they must fall under Baghdad’s control.
Speaking at the U. S.- Islamic World Forum, Allen said leaders in Anbar “do not view these forces through strictly a sectarian prism” and understand they do not include only Shiite hardliners.
“But we also remain very attentive to and concerned about extremist militia elements frequently influenced and led by the Iranian leadership,” he said. “It is critical that all forces in the battle space fall under the command and control of the government of Iraq.”
The role of the militias is contentious among many Sunnis in Iraq, who fear they could enhance Shiite powerhouse Iran’s influence in the country and exacerbate sectarian tensions.