As many as 15,000 ISIS terrorists have been killed in air strikes led by the U.S. and its allies over the past year, an independent group following the war against the Islamic State said Monday. The group, called Airwars.org, archives reports on the war and keeps a running total of the number of terrorists and civilians killed, and how many attacks have taken place.
The campaign against the Islamic State officially began just about a year ago. During that time, there have been 5,837 air strikes against the territory that ISIS has been holding – 3,570 in Iraq alone, as well as 2,267 in Syria. An estimated 15,000 terrorists have been killed during that time by the 12 known coalition countries the U.S. has recruited to fight ISIS. Nearly 17,000 bombs and missiles have ben used in those attacks.
In addition to the terrorists, an estimated 459 civilians have been killed as well. In addition, between 111 and 184 were estimated to have been killed in “friendly fire” incidents. July was by far the biggest month for attacks against ISIS, with over 850 taking place during that month alone.
According to the group, “Airwars.org is a collaborative, not-for-profit transparency project maintained by a team of professional journalists. We aim both to track and archive the international air war against Islamic State (Daesh), in both Iraq and Syria. We also seek to highlight - and follow up where possible - those cases in which claims of civilian non-combatant casualties and 'friendly fire' deaths from coalition airstrikes have been indicated by credible monitoring agencies and media sources.”
With that, the group acknowledged the difficulty of verifying the information about developments in the field.