US-led coalition targets ISIL in Iraq, Syria

The United States military has announced attacks on Daesh (ISIL) terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

The US and its allies targeted Daesh militants in Iraq with 17 strikes on Friday and five in Syria, said the Pentagon.

Four of the strikes in Iraq were near al-Rutbah, hitting an ISIL tactical unit and staging facility there, according to Reuters.

In Syria, four strikes hit four Daesh tactical units near Mar'a.

Since late September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting airstrikes purportedly against Daesh extremists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or the United Nations.

The air raids in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against alleged Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August last year. Many have criticized the ineffectiveness of the raids.

This is while the US and some of its regional allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have lent staunch support to the Takfiri groups there.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy for five years now. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced as a result of the crisis in the war-torn Arab country.

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