Airstrikes take aim at IS militant leaders on Iraq-Syria border

U.S.-led air strikes on Saturday targeted a gathering of Islamic State (IS) leaders in Iraq in a town near the Syrian border, possibly including the group’s top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Hadath television channel said on Saturday. Residents said there were unconfirmed reports that the IS local leader in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and his deputy were killed. The hardline Sunni Islamic State’s drive to form a caliphate in the two countries has helped return sectarian violence in Iraq to the dark days of 2006-2007, the peak of its civil war. It has also created a cross-border sanctuary for Arab militants, as well as foreign fighters whose passports could allow them to evade detection in Western airports.

This strike demonstrates the pressure we continue to place on the ISIL terrorist network and the group’s increasingly limited freedom to maneuver, communicate and command.

A U.S. Central Command statement

The strikes came as President Barack Obama unveiled plans to send 1,500 additional troops to Iraq to help Baghdad government forces strike back at the extremist fighters, roughly doubling the number of US soldiers in the country. To fund the growing war effort, Obama also plans to request $5.6 billion from Congress, including $1.6 billion to train and arm the Iraqi forces, officials said. The move marked a deepening U.S. commitment in the open-ended war against the IS group, three months after American aircraft first launched air strikes against the Sunni extremists.

U.S. Iraq Middle East