Despite widening tensions in the Middle East, the United States military and its partner forces continue to hunt the remains of ISIS. In the first three months of the year they conducted 94 operations against the terror group in Syria and Iraq.
In its latest update on Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing campaign against ISIS, U.S. Central Command said that as of the end of March, the U.S. and partner groups killed 18 ISIS operatives and detained 63 more. 66 of those 94 missions were in Iraq, killing 11 ISIS members, while the rest took place in Syria. CENTCOM says that approximately 2,500 ISIS fighters remain in the two countries, despite the fall of the group’s last refuge in Baghouz, Syria in 2019.
The anti-ISIS missions are being carried out by American troops as well as Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
“We are committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS because of the threat they pose both regionally and globally. We continue to focus our efforts on specifically targeting those members of ISIS who are seeking to conduct external operations outside of Iraq and Syria and those ISIS members attempting to break out ISIS members in detention in an attempt to reconstitute their forces,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement. “Defeating this threat requires continued pressure from our partners and the coalition.”
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