U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria on Sunday and Monday using attack, bomber and fighter aircraft to conduct six airstrikes, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.
Separately, in coordination with Iraqi ground forces, U.S. military forces conducted six airstrikes using fighter, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL terrorists in Iraq, the announcement said.
In Syria, six airstrikes near Kobani destroyed ISIL fighting and mortar positions, an ISIL vehicle and one stray resupply bundle from a U.S. airdrop of Kurdish supplies that occurred earlier on Monday, which prevented these supplies from falling into enemy hands, the statement said. All other resupply bundles were successfully delivered, it said.
In Iraq, two airstrikes took place southeast of Fallujah and struck a large ISIL unit and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, the announcement said. Three airstrikes south of Bayji Oil Refinery struck a small ISIL unit, destroyed an ISIL building and three ISIL vehicles, and damaged another ISIL building, it said. One additional airstrike, also south of Bayji, destroyed four ISIL boats and damaged at least four more, it said. France and Britain also participated in these strikes, CENTCOM noted.
In an interview on Monday on CNN "New Day," Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. officials do not think that Baghdad is under imminent threat.
"It is not like there are formations of ISIL fighters outside the capital just waiting to storm in," he said. "They do foment violence." "We have seen IED (improvised explosive device) attacks there in the city before, but our assessment is that the Iraqi Security Forces are stiffening their resolve, stiffening their defenses, and that they are capable right now of defending the capital city," Kirby said. "And believe me, they know how important Baghdad is to their people, to their county, to their security." Asked about the Pentagon airdrops of supplies to the Kurds fighting in Kobani, Kirby said, "We felt that we needed to do this and we did. And ... the great majority of the bundles that we drop we know got into the right hands." Kobani matters to the United States "because it matters to them (ISIL), because they keep flowing resources and effort to try to take that town," Kirby said "And when they do that, when they flow more resources, they create more targets. They make themselves vulnerable to our airstrikes from the air, but also from the efforts on the ground by these Kurdish forces, who have been very impressive and fighting very, very hard. And they (the Kurds) were running dangerously low on supplies, and we really felt, in keeping with an arrangement with the Iraqi government, that this was the right thing to do."