US Airstrikes Have Killed '10,000' ISIS Militants So Far

A U.S. official has stated that American airstrikes and the international coalition against the Islamic State group have resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 militants from this group in the past nine months. According to the Associated Press, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, June 3, to Radio France: 'We have witnessed heavy losses for ISIS, over 10,000 since the start of the [international campaign against ISIS].' He noted that the airstrikes against the Islamic State group have been effective, and the number of casualties reflects this. Blinken's remarks come as the Pentagon had previously refrained from releasing statistics related to the casualties of the Islamic State group. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, said last January in response to a journalist's question about the number of ISIS casualties: 'The fewer of these individuals there are, the better, but the goal is actually to reduce and eliminate their capabilities. Therefore, statistics on this matter are not relevant.' The Associated Press reports that the CIA had announced last September that the number of individuals in the Islamic State group was 33,500. Thus, Blinken's statements imply that the Islamic State group must have lost about a third of its personnel. However, militants from this group continue to advance, having recently captured the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in Iraq. Reports from Syria indicate that Islamic State members have launched attacks aimed at seizing the city of Hasakah in the northeast of the country. In light of these circumstances, an international coalition conference against the Islamic State group began on Tuesday in Paris with the participation of senior officials from 20 countries, but as the Associated Press reports, this conference ended without presenting any new strategies to stop ISIS militants. Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Iraq, was one of the speakers at this conference, who criticized the performance of the international coalition and deemed their support insufficient. In this context, '41 Iraqi police forces' were killed in a suicide attack by ISIS, and the advance of Islamic State forces in Aleppo province, Syria, continues. Firouzabadi stated that if ISIS reaches 40 kilometers from the Iranian border, they will be destroyed. 'Seven thousand Iranian and Iraqi military forces have been deployed in Syria.'