The United States bombed a suspected Islamic State staging area in eastern Syria on Wednesday, as U.S. warplanes also hit the militants’ positions across the border in neighbouring Iraq, U.S. officials said.
The airstrikes come a day after the U.S. and five Arab allies opened their military operation against the Islamic State group in Syria with more than 200 strikes on some two dozen targets. That campaign, which President Barack Obama has warned could last years, expands upon the aerial campaign the U.S. has already been conducting for more than a month against the extremists in Iraq.
On top of roughly 200 munitions fired on Tuesday, 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from two warships, according to U.S. Central Command. That alone rivals the 253 bombs and missiles aimed at the Sunni terrorist group’s positions in neighbouring Iraq from Aug. 8 to Sept. 10.
The latest U.S. strikes on Wednesday damaged eight Islamic State vehicles in Syria near the Iraqi border town of Qaim, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. It also reported hitting two Islamic State group armed vehicles west of Baghdad, as well as two militant fighting positions in northern Iraq.
In a separate statement, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the strikes in eastern Syria hit a staging area used by the militants to move equipment across the border into Iraq.
While U.S. officials provided limited details on the weapons used over Syria, the F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin Corp., made its debut in warfare almost 11 years after it was declared combat-ready.
The attacks also counted on the Tactical Tomahawk, the newest version of the cruise missile made by Raytheon Co., which can be redirected in mid-flight.
“You fly it, and it can receive changes in targeting, changes in direction,” the Navy’s chief of operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, told reporters last year. “It can go up and actually loiter.
Along with its Arab partners, the Obama administration aims to destroy the Islamic State group, the extremist faction that has through brute force carved out a proto-state in the heart of the Middle East, effectively erasing the border between Iraq and Syria. The United Nations has accused the extremist faction of committing war crimes.
The U.S.-led campaign against the extremists has drawn a mixed response from Syria’s multitude of rebel brigades, many of whom have been locked in a deadly fight with Islamic State militants since January. But the rebels’ ultimate goal is to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the U.S. is focused on defeating the Islamic State group.
On Wednesday, the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group criticized the American-led airstrikes for being limited to the Islamic State group and other extremists while leaving Assad’s government untouched.
“We regret that the international community has come up with partial solutions to the Syrian conflict in which hundreds of thousands were killed or detained by the Assad regime,” said Nasr Al-Hariri, secretary general of the Syrian National Coalition.
In a statement, Hariri also said that any effort other than helping Syrians overthrow Assad will only fuel extremism.
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