Airstrikes against ISIS ramp up with fights for Mosul, Raqqa

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Airstrikes against ISIS ramp up with fights for Mosul, Raqqa

By: Stephen Losey, December 20, 2016

As the fights for Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria heated up in October and November, the coalition fighting the Islamic State group ramped up its airstrikes to the highest point all year.

According to U.S. Air Forces Central Command statistics, the coalition — including the Air Force and other U.S. services and allied nations' air forces — released 3,038 weapons in October and 2,709 in November. Those 5,747 weapons released represent the coalition's busiest two-month stretch against ISIS in 2016.

Not all of the strikes, of course, came in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces' effort to retake the strategically key city of Mosul from ISIS. But Brett McGurk, President Obama's counter-ISIS envoy, has noted the increase in airstrikes accompanying the Mosul battle, which began Oct. 17.

"One week into #Mosul operation, all objectives met thus far, and more coalition airstrikes than any other 7-day period of war against #ISIL," McGurk tweeted Oct. 24.

And the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces in November launched an operation, dubbed Euphrates Rage, to retake Raqqa. That operation, like the Mosul battle, has also been supported by coalition airstrikes that aimed to soften targets and cut off transit routes that allowed ISIS to move weapons, people and supplies. ...

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https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/airstrikes-isis-afghanistan-afcent