A conservative estimate of the number of dead Islamic State group terrorists in Iraq and Syria over the last two years stands at 50,000.
The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State has historically been coy about giving exact numbers of Sunni terrorists who have perished since 2014. A senior military official who spoke to Fox News on Thursday relayed the number before issuing a warning — the organization may mutate into “AQI 2.0” (Al Qaeda in Iraq).
“I give them credit for being so resilient,” the source said.
To better highlight the kind of resources being deployed against Islamic State, Col. Daniel Manning, the deputy director of the Combined Air Operations Center, told Military.com in November that Iraq’s assault on Mosul began with a relentless air campaign. B-52s rained bombs on the city every eight minutes for three days beginning Oct. 16.
“It’s a pretty intense bombing campaign if you think about each of these bombs are precision-guided weapons … so it’s a really high rate to be concentrated over one city over a prolonged period of time,” the officer said Nov. 5.
Iraqi units attempting to wrestle control of the city for the first time since 2014 say they are facing fierce urban warfare involving sniper fire and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). Their task is complicated by an intricate network of tunnels the terrorists created in anticipating of a U.S.-led mission.
SEE ALSO: U.S. bombed Mosul terrorists every 8 minutes for 3 days at battle’s start, official says
The United Nations estimates that nearly 2,000 members of Iraq’s security forces — along with 900 cops and civilians — were killed in November, Reuters reported Tuesday.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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