This Is How Little the US-Led Air War Against ISIS Has Achieved
The U.S.-led coalition has carried out nearly 3,800 airstrikes since August, but that's led to few gains for an Iraqi military that has a long way to go before it can hold territory.
Nearly 300 days have passed since United States aircraft began dropping bombs on Islamic State militants in Iraq, and later in Syria. While much has been made in recent weeks of the unmotivated and depleted state of Baghdad’s security forces, what has been less obvious is the quite limited effect of the nearly 3,800 coalition airstrikes on ISIS territorial gains .
So Defense One , with the help of the analysts at the Institute for the Study of War , combed through U.S. Central Command’s public data to visualize those effects. The takeaways: ISIS territory does not appear to have been degraded or destroyed , as President Barack Obama pledged to do back in September. While more than 10,000 ISIS fighters are said to have been killed by airstrikes so far, the Iraq and Syrian turf where ISIS fighters roam has nevertheless grown in the past 10 months.
Take a look for yourself in the video below.