US-led coalition kills 150 ISIS militants in Syria

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria killed an estimated 150 militants belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group over the weekend, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

The precision strikes were directed at an “ISIS headquarters and command and control center in an exclusively ISIS-occupied location in the contested Middle Euphrates River Valley,” according to CENTCOM. 

The strikes came as the result of extensive intelligence gathering as well as target observation by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prior to the strike, which CENTCOM said “ensured no accidental engagement of non-military personnel.”

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“The strikes underscore our assertion that the fight to liberate Syria is far from over,” Maj. Gen. James Jarrard, commanding general of Special Operations Joint Task Force in Syria, said in a statement. 

“Our SDF partners are still making daily progress and sacrifices, and together we are still finding, targeting and killing ISIS terrorists intent on keeping their extremist hold on the region,” Jarrard added.

The high concentration of ISIS militants gathered where the strikes took place signalled that they were potentially massing for a movement, CENTCOM said.

News of the attack came days after Turkish forces launched an attack on a Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria. Ankara regards the Kurds as an insurgent threat against Turkey, while the U.S. backs Kurdish fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces.