{"id":32847,"date":"2019-01-15T22:53:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T22:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/15\/airstrikes-against-isis-in-syria-up-in-recent-weeks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:26:00","slug":"airstrikes-against-isis-in-syria-up-in-recent-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/01\/15\/airstrikes-against-isis-in-syria-up-in-recent-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Airstrikes against ISIS in Syria up in recent weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the U.S. military battles Islamic State militants in the Euphrates River valley, it has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/01\/14\/airstrikes-up-against-isis-taliban\/\" target=_blank>conducted more airstrikes in Syria<\/a> in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The greatest increase in airstrikes came after the Trump administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2018\/12\/19\/troops-may-immediately-withdrawal-from-syria-as-trump-declares-victory-over-isis\/\" target=_blank>ordered a surprise withdrawal from Syria Dec. 19<\/a>, which caught the Pentagon and allies off-guard and led to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/12\/20\/mattis-out-defense-secretary-says-his-views-no-longer-aligned-with-trump\/\" target=_blank>resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inherentresolve.mil\/Portals\/14\/CJTF-OIR%20Press%20Release%2020181212-01%20Strike%20Release.pdf?ver=2018-12-12-083605-307\" target=_blank>summary released Tuesday<\/a> by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, the Air Force and other coalition aircraft carried out 1,147 engagements and conducted 575 strikes in Syria between Dec. 30 and Jan. 12. The coalition also was involved in 19 engagements, and 13 strikes, in Iraq during that two-week period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s up from the previous two-week period, Dec. 16 to Dec. 29, when 1,001 engagements and 469 strikes were carried out in Syria, and 14 engagements with nine strikes were carried out in Iraq. It\u2019s also higher than the 863 engagements and 458 strikes conducted in Syria between Dec. 2 and Dec. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the most recent two-week period, allied aircraft engaged 485 ISIS tactical units in Syria, according to the coalition. They destroyed 308 staging areas, 220 fighting positions, 105 mortar, rocket and artillery systems, 57 supply routes, and 50 facilities used to manufacture improvised explosive devices and car bombs, among other ISIS assets in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/01\/14\/trump-says-us-must-stop-its-endless-wars-and-bring-troops-home\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4579114.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Trump says US must stop its \u2018endless wars&#8217; and bring troops home<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The president&#039;s comments come as administration officials work to downplay fears about the rapid removal of forces from the region.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon on Friday confirmed it had started moving equipment out of Syria, and had begun planning to pull about 2,000 U.S. troops from the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The greatest increase in airstrikes came after the Trump administration ordered a surprise withdrawal from Syria Dec. 19, which caught the Pentagon and allies off-guard and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10,29,116,117],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3372],"class_list":["post-32847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"VHLA2MCEYNFXPMCGTL5TPWDMW4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/01\/15\/airstrikes-against-isis-in-syria-up-in-recent-weeks\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Airstrikes against ISIS in Syria up in recent weeks - Military Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The greatest increase in airstrikes came after the Trump administration ordered a surprise withdrawal from Syria Dec. 19, which caught the Pentagon and allies off-guard and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Airstrikes against ISIS in Syria up in recent weeks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The greatest increase in airstrikes came after the Trump administration ordered a surprise withdrawal from Syria Dec. 19, which caught the Pentagon and allies off-guard and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/01\/15\/airstrikes-against-isis-in-syria-up-in-recent-weeks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Military Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-15T22:53:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T20:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephen Losey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephen Losey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": 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