The U.S. military and Arab allies have launched the first airstrikes against Islamic State, ISIS, targets inside Syria as the war ordered by President Obama against the militant organization took a new dimension.
A statement issued on Tuesday morning from the Department of Defense said 14 airstrikes were launched against ISIS targets.
The statement said the strikes destroyed several ISIS targets in the vicinity of Ar Raqqah, Dayr az Zawr, Al Hasakah, and Abu Kamal, as well as some of its fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command, control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles.
It noted that the attack was launched using a mixture of war planes dropping bombs, remotely piloted aircraft and ships firing cruise missiles.
According to the US Defense Department, Arab nations that participated in the operation include Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,.
The department declared that the U.S also took separate action on Monday night to halt an imminent attack against the American and Western interests planned by a network of seasoned al-Qaeda veterans.
An image from a French military video shows the destruction of ammunitions and fuel depot captured by Islamic State militants on September 19 in Iraq.
An airstrike by French fighter jets destroyed the logistics depot that was overrun and captured by the militants.
About two thirds of the estimated 30,000 ISIS fighters are based in Syria. The remainder has captured large parts of northern Iraq, although their momentum has been blunted there by U.S. fighter, bomber and drone aircraft.
The goal of the militants is to dominate a vast stretch of territory from Iraq to the Mediterranean.
About a month ago, they swept through northern Iraq, capturing Mosul, the country’s second-largest city after Baghdad, and threatening the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Kurdish forces and Iraqi commandos, backed by U.S. air power, stopped the advance of militants and ejected them from control of two key dams near Mosul and Haditha. They also helped prevent the slaughter of religious refugees.