Airstrikes help ground forces fight IS: Pentagon
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E-mail Xinhua, October 22, 2014
Kurdish forces are in control of the majority of the Syrian city of Kobani despite efforts by the Islamic State (IS) to take the town, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
Coalition airstrikes in and around the city on Syria's border with Turkey have been augmented by an airdrop of arms to Kurdish forces fighting the terror group, said John Kirby, press secretary of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
Air Force planes dropped 27 of 28 pallets to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Kobani, Kirby said at a DOD news conference.
"ISIL forces continue to threaten [Kobani]," Kirby said. "We're continuing to hit targets in and around there to help the Kurdish forces as they continue to fight against ISIL. So it's still a very mixed, contested environment."
IS is presenting more targets to coalition aircraft and to Iraqi forces, Kirby said. Coalition forces launched seven airstrikes on Monday, Kirby said, adding that he expects more attacks on the terror group in the coming days.
"The weather in the region is improving," he said, explaining that with better weather, "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms are able to fly a little bit more now."
In Iraq, there have been strikes in support of forces on the ground in Fallujah, at the Mosul Dam complex and in Bayji. All three are areas IS wants to take and hold, and at all three locations, Iraqi security forces are contesting the group. Near Bayji, the location of a massive oil refinery -- Iraqi security forces are advancing.
"Their advances over the last few days have been slowed by the weather, which is clearing, and so they're moving again, but it also has been slowed by improvised explosive devices of (IS forces) ," Kirby said.
"They are taking the fight to the enemy, and those strikes last night are indications that we're trying to support them, too, " he added.
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