CJTF-OIR Strike Summary Dec. 16 – Dec. 29

ON CJTF STRIKE RELEASE PUBLICATION CHANGING FROM 1x PER WEEK TO 2X PER MONTH: From this point forward, CJTF-OIR Strike Releases will be published bi-weekly. This will encompass all strikes from the previous two weeks. The continued degradation of ISIS leads to decreased kinetic activities against the terrorist organization. Our intent is to reduce the number of reports while maintaining transparency. CJTF-OIR is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS and the prevention of its ability to establish networks or re-emerge.

SOUTHWEST ASIA – Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and its partners continue to pursue the enduring defeat of ISIS.

CJTF-OIR and its partner forces’ operations are exerting pressure on ISIS senior leaders and associates, as well as degrading, disrupting and dismantling ISIS organizational structures throughout Iraq and Syria.

CJTF-OIR will continue to target ISIS, which will remain committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region, and to protect all our homelands from ISIS’s terrorist threat.

Strike Summary

Between Dec. 16 and Dec. 29, CJTF-OIR conducted 469 strikes consisting of 1,001 engagements in Syria, and conducted nine strikes consisting of 14 engagements in Iraq.

In Syria, 469 strikes engaged 666 ISIS tactical units, and destroyed 291 fighting positions, 153 staging areas, 67 supply routes, 27 command and control nodes, 27 petroleum oil lubricant storage facilities, 25 vehicles, 14 tunnels, 14 weapons cache, 13 improvised explosive device facilities, seven heavy weapons systems, six pieces of heavy equipment, seven buildings, five petroleum oil and lubricant tankers, five bridges, four armored vehicles, two caves, two vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, two motorcycles, two vehicle borne improvised explosive device facilities, three mortar launching sites, one boat, one barge, and one unmanned aircraft system; and damaged seven fighting positions, four staging areas, two vehicles, one armored vehicle, one command and control node and one heavy weapon system; and suppressed 70 fighting positions, 12 vehicles, 10 staging areas and one armored vehicles.

In Iraq, nine strikes engaged one ISIS tactical units, and destroyed eight caves and five buildings.

There are six delayed reports for Coalition military force strikes. Coalition military forces conducted six strikes consisting of eight engagements between Dec. 7 and Dec. 15 in addition to previously reported strikes.

In Iraq, six strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units, and destroyed one tunnel, two caves and two motorcycles.

Between Dec. 16 and Dec. 29, CJTF-OIR detected 222 strikes from other actors that crossed the Euphrates River Valley. CJTF-OIR is committed to avoiding and in every case minimizing civilian casualties; CJTF-OIR calls on all other actors in the area to observe the same precautions.

This Coalition strike release contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery.

A strike, as defined in the Coalition release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location. For example, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined.

CJTF-OIR does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. The information used to compile the daily strike releases is based on ‘Z’ or Greenwich Mean Time.