There Have Been No U.S. Strikes Against ISIS in Iraq in 2018 – By Jeryl Bier (weeklystandard.com) / Jan 5 2018
The new year is less than a week old, and so far, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS is reporting there have been no strikes against the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq. A single strike on New Year’s Eve day near Bayji, Iraq was the last such attack. The four days with no strikes matches a previous mark set on December 4-7, 2017.
This lull in action in Iraq continues a trend that began in late 2017 after the defeat of ISIS in Hawija, Iraq, the last major urban area under ISIS control. Strikes in Syria have also dropped dramatically in the last two months since ISIS was driven from Raqqa and then Albu Kamal, two of the last remaining Syrian cities under ISIS control. There have been 26 strikes so far in Syria during the first 4 days of 2018.
Airwars, a website that aggregates and tracks data from US Central Command (CENTCOM) on strikes, published a chart (reprinted with permission) that illustrates the scale of the drop off in coalition activity in both countries:
Strikes peaked in August with 1,463 in Syria and 292 in Iraq. By October, the numbers had fallen to 499 and 196, respectively. November and December saw 139 and 184 strikes in Syria and 85 and 28 strikes in Iraq.
As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported in November, CENTCOM recently cut daily strike reports in Iraq and Syria back to twice a week. Shortly before the change, President Trump tweeted on November 3 that “the Military has hit ISIS ‘much harder’ over the last two days.” However, there was no evidence to support the president’s assertion, and Pentagon spokesman told TWS at the time that CENTCOM “assessed, long prior to the tweet, that daily updates aren’t necessary anymore.”
While the strike reports from Operation Inherent Resolve include only Iraq and Syria, Bill Roggio and Alexandra Gutowski reported this week at the Long War Journal that 2017 was a record year for counterterrorism strikes outside of “active hostilities” (war zones) in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya
PB/TK – Let’s hold off on popping champagne and planning a ticker-tape parade, but sporadic 2 month lulls in action is not unheard of. Gotta remember ISIS, like other terror organizations, do not have home countries as enemies in the past did (North Korea, North Vietnam, Germany, Japan, Italy….) as there is no capitol to topple to end their game. They scatter like ants, regroup elsewhere, and wait.
