Eight ISIS bombers are dead after they attempted to breach a base in Iraq that was housing U.S. Marines.
Iraqi Security Forces were able to stop the bombers at the Ain al-Asad air base before they could reach the areas housing the U.S. troops. Coalition forces were the ones who identified the bombers to the ISF.
“The ISF supported by Coalition surveillance assets defeated the attack, killing all eight attackers,” the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve outlined in a statement. “The ISF have since re-secured their facility.”
“Coalition forces were several kilometers from the attack and at no stage where they under direct threat from this action.”
The Ain al-Asad air base reportedly is being attacked daily by ISIS but U.S. officials have described them as “nuisance attacks” with no real substance. The base is where at least 300 Marines are training Iraqi security forces.
The Pentagon has announced that three major ISIS leaders have been killed in the last few weeks and that the airstrikes are having a “significant impact” on the terrorist organization.
General Martin Dempsey granted an interview to the Wall Street Journal where he said the highest ranked terroristed taken out in the airstrikes is Haji Mutazz, deputy to ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades ISIL’s ability to command and control current operations against Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), including Kurdish and other local forces in Iraq,” Kirby told the Journal.
“While we do not discuss the intelligence and targeting details of our operations, it is important to note that leadership, command and control nodes, facilities, and equipment are always part of our targeting calculus.”
General Dempsey said that the U.S. is not attacking the group as if it was a nation despite their attempts to claim they are a new country.
“It is in the context of how to fight a network,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman added. “It is not a country. They have claimed it, but they are not. They are a network, so they have finances, they have logistics and they have leaders.”
